Rare is finally prepping to add cosmetic microtransactions to its pirate adventure live service game Sea of Thieves, which has now received over a year's worth of free content updates. Cosmetic purchases, like pets, have been planned for the game even before its launch, but Rare pushed back these arrangements in favor of sprucing up the game world.
Today in a developer update video, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate shared more details on what these premium purchases will entail, and reiterated that they are completely optional, won't have lootboxes or pay-to-win mechanics, and won't separate the playerbase.
Neate said today that pets, additional emotes, and special ship cosmetics will be going into testing soon with Insiders, which will come into the game as the first premium content. Although we are yet to see how exactly will pets function, Neate revealed other crew members will be able to interact with these critters as well. Moreover, the premium ship cosmetics won't clash with the liveries and items available for unlock in-game. Instead, they will be items celebrating "much-loved games or characters similar in style to the Banjo and Perfect Dark" promotions the studio has delivered in the past.
No release date was shared for the rollout, but these premium cosmetics will be implemented to the base game following the upcoming Insider testing round.
Regarding the crossplay opt-out that's coming soon to Xbox One players, Neate added that the option will be Arena-specific at first, and that players will get shifted back into the crossplay pool (adding Windows 10 players back into the mix) if not enough crews are found for a match in the restricted search. "Super promising" hit registration improvements are also coming to Insiders for testing soon.
Rare recently resumed its monthly content updates to Sea of Thieves, which it had halted some time back to focus on the massive Anniversary Update. This month's new addition is a brand new type of voyage that promises explosive results.
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