It was back at E3 2016 that Rare showcased a longer preview of its upcoming cartoony pirate online game, Sea of Thieves. After a bit of back and forth, the game was at long last made available on March 20, 2018 with the developer promising a bunch of new content as part of the one year anniversary celebrations this year. And now, an Anniversary Edition has been unveiled.
Coming in at $49.99, the variant is 10 dollars less than the regular version. As folks may remember, the original title was the first one from a Microsoft first-party studio whose launch and Xbox Game Pass availability dates coincided. This is an approach which the company has maintained with games like Forza Horizon 4 and Crackdown 3.
Here are the highlights of what the Anniversary Edition includes according to the store page, although the Anniversary Update itself that carries this content is not here yet:
- Immersive new story experience in Tall Tales – Shores of Gold
- Dedicated new mode for competitive play in The Arena
- New fishing, hunting and cooking capabilities
- New multi-functional ship-mounted harpoon
- More Trading Companies and voyage types
- Skeleton Ships and Cursed Cannonballs
- Megalodon enemies and loot drops for creatures
- An expanded world with volcanic natural hazards
- The Anniversary Edition also includes the free Sea Dog Pack
From the looks of it, the variant above was meant to replace the original game, hence why it lists pretty much everything from the upcoming Anniversary Update as included. All permanent content added in previous game updates such as Forsaken Shores, Cursed Sails, The Hungering Deep, and Shrouded Spoils is included in this edition. The Arena competitive mode and the Tall Tales - Shores of Gold story quests will arrive for free to all Sea of Thieves owners on April 30 via the imaginatively named Anniversary Update.
Apart from everything mentioned above, there"s also the cosmetic Sea Dog Pack that"s included in the Anniversary Edition, which contains the Sea Dog Hat, Jacket, Cutlass, Pistol, Compass, Ship Sails, plus an additional 10,000 gold.
Also, Major Nelson"s tweet announcing the Sea of Thieves: Anniversary Edition was pulled shortly after being published today. Since it seems the standalone variant has apparently been made available a few days earlier than intended, there are two variants of Sea of Thieves up on the Store right now, with this being the cheaper one.