Sea of Thieves, you might have heard, is heading to PlayStation 5 next month. It’s a significant moment for all sorts of reasons – it’s perhaps the biggest of the four Microsoft first-party titles recently confirmed for Sony’s console, and it’s also the first time developer Rare has released a PlayStation title in its nearly 40-year history – but it’s also an opportunity for a whole new group of players to experience (and I say this as a huge Sea of Thieves fan) a wonderful, genuinely unique game. And with the multiplayer pirate adventure’s 30th April launch on PS5 looming, I spoke to creative director Mike Chapman and executive producer Joe Neate about this latest milestone, the state of the game, and the team’s big sandbox focus for 2024.
“We’ve had [the PS5 version] running really since late last year,” Neate says of Sea of Thieves’ journey to a new console. “We’ve been testing internally, and we’re getting into the ‘take home’ stage, where we’re playing at home with our hands on the [PlayStation] controllers, and kind of going, ‘This is insane!'”. But how, I ask, did the pair react when they first learned a PlayStation version was happening? “I think it’s such a surreal moment we have this opportunity,” Chapman answers. “Sea of Thieves at its core is about taking barriers away, allowing crews of would-be pirates to sail together on the waves, to share ships, and the fact we’re adding now adding one more platform so people can create their ideal crew and enjoy the game, it’s monumental, absolutely monumental – if you’d told me this back in 2018, I don’t think I would have believed you. It’s amazing.”
“And having this new influx of players,” Neate adds, “this new influx of feedback and perspective, for the strength and health of Sea of Thieves as an ongoing, evolving game, it’s just a great moment… It’s a really good time for Sea of Thieves.”
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