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Xbox One X is $100 off during Microsoft's E3 sale
It's one of the most wonderful times of the year for gamers as E3 is upon us. Not only will the next week or so bring more game announcements than you can shake a stick at, but you can expect sales galore from many of the big hitters. Microsoft, for one, has stepped up to the plate with an array of deals, including a hefty discount on Xbox One X.
'Sea of Thieves' is free this week, if you have friends
Sea of Thieves fans can convince their hesitant friends to dive into the murky depths with them for free this week. From February 6th to 13th, anyone who owns Sea of Thieves or has played it via an active Game Pass subscription can invite up to three friends to play for free. Just visit the website, grab your codes and hit the high seas.
'Sea of Thieves' will take up less space after pending update
There is good news and bad news for Sea of Thieves players regarding the game's next update. The bad news is you'll have to download and reinstall the entire game. The good news is, as a result of some behind the scenes improvements made by developer Rare, the game installation size will be cut by nearly half on all platforms.
Rare delays 'Sea of Thieves' DLC at the last minute
You might want to rethink your plans if you expected to swashbuckle your way through Sea of Thieves' "Forsaken Shores" DLC this week. Rare has pushed back the release from September 19th (just over a day away as of this writing) to September 27th. A weekend playtesting session discovered a "complex" memory glitch that led to crashes for many players, and it's going to take a while to both fix the bug and test it with volunteers in the Pioneer program.
‘Sea of Thieves’ could learn a thing or two from ‘No Man’s Sky’
The second Sea of Thieves campaign-slash-major update hit Xboxes and PCs last week, and it is, in a word, dull. Cursed Sails isn't too dissimilar from the first campaign, The Hungering Deep, in that the main quest is basically just a case of sailing from island to island to find the next clue. The new equivalent of the boss battle is identical in many ways, too. It's not so much a challenge as it is simply showing up with enough resources to keep your shift afloat, crew alive and cannons firing until you inevitably win. Alongside the humdrum quest, though, are several meaningful updates to the core game. There's positive growth here, and as No Man Sky's NEXT update has shown, continually adding content and making serious changes to a game people were initially disappointed with can eventually pay off. But, five months on, Sea of Thieves still needs more.
'Sea of Thieves' DLC 'Cursed Sails' arrives July 31st
It won't be too much longer before the first of Sea of Thieves' two free summer add-ons makes an appearance. Rare and Microsoft have revealed that Cursed Sails will be available to Windows and Xbox One players on July 31st. The DLC introduces "terrifying" ships with skeletal crews, a three-person Brigantine ship and Alliances that help you take on larger challenges in return for similarly huge rewards. You'll want to act quickly if you want to make the most of Cursed Sails, though -- the campaign associated with the DLC lasts just three weeks.
Microsoft details its upcoming 'Sea of Thieves' DLC
Microsoft wasn't going to let E3 go by without mentioning new content for Sea of Thieves. At its Xbox press conference today, we got a glimpse at the forthcoming "Cursed Sails" and "Forsaken Shores." New lands look super dark, with plenty of fire, ash and a host of cursed adventurers. We found out in April that updates would prioritize new maps over perks, and that certainly seems to be the case here. While "Forsaken Shores" won't be available until September, "Cursed Sails" is set to arrive next month. Get a taste of what's coming to Xbox and Windows 10 via the trailer below.
Microsoft discounts the Xbox One X for its E3 week sale
Microsoft is cutting the price of the 4K-friendly Xbox One X for the first time in what the company is calling its biggest Xbox sale of the year. All Xbox One models are dropping by $50, so the Xbox One X will set you back $449, while the Xbox One S costs $199 for the 500GB version, and $249 for 1TB. If you've been looking for a new controller, you can pick one up for $10 less.
The debut 'Sea of Thieves' campaign almost makes it fun again
Sea of Thieves was an opportunity for Microsoft and studio Rare to do something completely new. The multiplayer pirate simulator promised endless hours of entertainment. A sandbox world steeped in lore in which you make your own adventures. But upon the game's release in March this year, the internet was befuddled, asking the question: Is this really it? There just didn't seem to be that much to do, but Sea of Thieves was always supposed to follow the "game as a service" model of trickling in new content. That starts with The Hungering Deep campaign that beached earlier this week in a flawed but potentially important step in re-injecting some semblance of fun into the game.
The first major 'Sea of Thieves' DLC lands on May 29th
Swashbuckling pirate MMO Sea of Thieves will receive its first major update on May 29th. Microsoft's Xbox team made the announcement on Twitter with a short CGI trailer for 'The Hungering Deep' -- the first of six free expected DLC packs. Of all the criticisms leveled at Sea of Thieves, the most common (apart from bottlenecked servers) seem to be over its lack of content. But that's precisely what developer Rare has pledged to address in continued updates.
'Sea of Thieves' updates will focus on new maps, not perks
Ask a Sea of Thieves player for complaints and they'll likely have one common theme: there's not enough to do. You can only dig up so many treasures on the same islands. And Rare knows it. The developer has detailed content plans for the first several months after launch, including a shift in priorities. While Rare had talked about adding pets and ship captaincy early on, those features are "on the back burner" as the company focuses on adding more raw gameplay, including maps, enemies and events.
Over a million people have already played 'Sea of Thieves'
Have you been struggling to play Sea of Thieves since it launched on March 20th? There's a good explanation for it. In a launch update, Rare's Craig Duncan and Joe Neate have revealed that over 1 million unique gamers have played the online pirate adventure in just its first 48 hours. The team had anticipated large demand, but wasn't ready for as many as 5,000 logins per minute -- the servers went down for nearly five hours on launch day as a result.
Microsoft is giving away 'Sea of Thieves' with Xbox purchases
Microsoft is gearing up to make playing Sea of Thieves as easy as possible. If you've heard all the hype surrounding the cartoony pirate simulator but don't already own an Xbox (or PC) to play it on, for a limited time, when you buy an Xbox One X you'll get developer Rare's latest for free. The promo lasts from March 18th through the 24th, with the March 20th launch day falling square in the middle.
‘Sea of Thieves’ will live or die by how its world grows
Sea of Thieves is unquestionably an absolute blast to play. It unashamedly embraces every seafarer cliché and trope so you can live out all your pirate fantasies, just without the sunburn, scurvy and missing appendages. You can down grog until you puke, take to the open ocean in search of treasure or conflict and, when you lose a cannon fight, play a mournful tune with your fellow scallywags as you go down with your galleon. But Sea of Thieves isn't supposed to be a game you spend a few fun evenings playing before forgetting it just as quickly. Developer Rare envisions its core audience spending hundreds if not thousands of hours plundering this new world. If that's going to be the case, though, it has to grow to be twice the title it is today.
Microsoft's Xbox exclusives will come to Game Pass on launch day
To date, the Xbox Game Pass has been a tricky value proposition. While there have been a few recent hits, it frequently comes across as a clearinghouse for games whose best days are over. You'll have a better reason to subscribe going forward, though: Microsoft has promised to add all of its in-house Xbox One exclusives to Game Pass the moment they're available. Sea of Thieves will be one of the first when it launches on March 20th, and this should also include the long-delayed Crackdown 3 as well as future games in franchises like Halo and Gears of War. So long as you're paying that monthly fee, that blockbuster title won't cost you extra or require a months-long wait.
Pirate simulator 'Sea of Thieves' hits Xbox on March 20th
Rare's cartoony pirate simulator Sea of Thieves sets sail for your Xbox One and Windows 10 March 20th. Microsoft's stab at breaking out of its Forza, Gears of War and Halo release cadence can't get here fast enough, and if you're feeling impatient you can preorder right now to unlock some bonus bits. What're those, pray tell? Access to the shared-world's closed beta in addition to some cosmetic items, according to Xbox Wire.
'Sea of Thieves' won't take you on an epic pirate adventure until 2018
When Rare teased us with Sea of Thieves last year, it left the release date up in the air. Sure, we knew the game would set us on an adventure across the high seas, but we had no idea when we would embark on our quest for loot. Now we know. Sort of. Today at E3, the company penned the adventure in for a 2018 release date, exclusive for Xbox One and Windows 10.
How did Microsoft fare at Gamescom this year?
Microsoft has a ton of Xbox exclusives in the pipeline. Gears of War 4, ReCore, Dead Rising 4, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 3 -- the list goes on. Here at Gamescom, we've been speaking to the developers behind each title, listening to their pitches and, in some instances, going hands-on. So what impressed us and what didn't? I took 10 minutes with Engadget Senior Editor Aaron Souppouris to break it all down. (Hint: I really liked Scalebound...)
Rare's next game is 'Sea of Thieves' for Xbox One and Windows 10
Rare isn't just banking on 30 years of nostalgia; it has a brand-new franchise on the way called Sea of Thieves. Announced today for Xbox One and Windows 10, it's looking like the pirate sim we didn't get from Assassin's Creed. Rare described the game as its most ambitious effort ever, as the player dives in first-person to a shared adventure. As one would expect from Rare, it's all very stylized and cartoony, which you can get a good look at via the trailer (embedded after the break.) There's no word yet on a release date, but we'll be looking for it on the show floor and you can sign up for more updates on the official website.
