Rare gets thoroughly scuttled in this Sea of Thieves developer gameplay video

In Sea of Thieves, teams of up to four players will be able to adventure, plunder, and booze it up on the seven seas in a game that is currently sailing through a closed technical alpha on Xbox One and Windows 10.

Rare is regularly putting up developer diaries and commentaries on their YouTube channel, but this latest one shows how a smart pirate crew can totally outflank a rival ship using some cunning misdirection and a whole lot of swimming.

The gameplay video demonstrates many of Sea of Thieves' known mechanics, including its persistently-connected open world, ship battling, treasure hunting, and close quarters flintlock combat. Rare's crew drops anchor to engage a pirate ship and defend a legendary loot chest from a rival crew, and they appear to be winning. They also said that the Titanic was unsinkable.

Sea of Thieves is set for its maiden voyage on Xbox One and Windows 10 towards the end of 2017, but you can sign up to the game's insider program over here for a chance to jump in early and offer feedback.

Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

18 Comments
  • This game is gonna be awesome. Did you know there's already a copycat game on Steam? I was really annoyed when I learned about it.
  • Why??? It's a similar game but that doesn't mean that they even knew about Sea of Thieves when they started working on it. Blackwake seems to have a lot to it and probably took a long time to develop. It's quite rude to assume that they were trying to copy Sea of Thieves and that they somehow made the game in such a short amount of time.
  • blackwake is more like a sea pirate skin/adaption of guns of icarus as apposed to a clone of sea of thieves
  • Hopefully it'll be on game pass, seems like alot of fun.
  • What's the name of the game??
  • Sea of Thieves
  • To be a pirate. It's an mmo style game. Lots of quests, treasures to be found. It's a world where you and your friends make your own stories.
  • This game is going to be so fun. So glad its an exclusive.
  • I've played a couple of beta and alpha sessions and its a blast once you take it for what it is and that's bags of fun! To finally captain a pirate ship with a crew that actually knows how to play the game is ultimately satisfying!
  • your title had me scared that rare got scuttled. so im like not again ms shut down another studio?  looking forward to this game hope that never happens to rare. :)
  • This is probably the game that convinces me to get an Xbox One after hanging up my gaming controllers quite a few years ago.
  • This games looks amazing! I want it... But I want it to run on my SP4!
  • Please release it on the Windows Store.
  • They are
  • Awesome. I'll support and buy anything on Windows Store if the effort is there. Just dont like Steam. Have heard to many nightmare stories about downloads.
  • Same waters from Forza Horizon 3...it looks superb
  • "What's the point of making a game if you can't be the best at it?" I love it.
  • So far Rare has been a relatively wasted purchase