For those who’ve been with Sea of Thieves since its release back in 2018, the captaincy update is a thing of legend; originally intended to be the multiplayer pirate adventure’s very first post-launch update, it would give players the opportunity to acquire their own persistent vessel on the seas, and – in a proposition that still excites the pirate in me to this day – start their sessions in a gloriously dramatic fashion, bursting through the Legendary Hideout’s massive waterfall out into the world. But then Sea of Thieves’ slightly wobbly launch happened, and Rare shifted its focus to fleshing out the game’s sandbox following criticism of its limited core. With that, the captaincy update was set aside, but never quite forgotten by the player base, gradually becoming the stuff of legend with the passing of time.
But then, earlier this year, it returned. As announced during Microsoft’s June showcase, captaincy and boat ownership were, after all this time, back on the cards. Now, the wait is finally over, with Sea of Thieves’ near-five-years-in-the-making captaincy update launching later today. It promises to deliver an elaborate new framework for adventures to come – minus any waterfall-busting ship shenanigans, unfortunately – and ahead of its arrival Eurogamer had the opportunity to chat with Rare about what it hopes captaincy will bring to the Sea of Thieves.
“I think even before we released Sea of Thieves,” explains creative director Mike Chapman on the update’s genesis, “we all knew that the idea of being a ship captain in a game about delivering the ultimate pirate fantasy – the idea of a ship captain, and that ship captain’s identity being personified through a ship – was just something that we always wanted to do.”
About Author
