The recent Sea of Thieves beta which took place between the end of January and the beginning of February turned out to be a resounding success for Rare, particularly on live streaming platforms like Twitch where the game dethroned the likes of PUBG and Dota 2 for about a week.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Rare's Executive Producer Joe Neate said:
It's a very watchable and shareable game. We've seen from our beta that people watching other people play has driven them to come into the game. It's driven pre-orders during that time period. Watching people play and seeing their adventures and going, oh, what could I do, sparks your creativity and imagination and makes you want to come into this.
And because it's a fun and welcoming game, you're not watching a super competitive game, which is great to watch but then going, I'm not going to be able to do that. Instead, you're watching it and going, oh that was really funny, or, I wouldn't have imagined using the explosive barrel in that way, or firing myself out of the cannon into someone crow's nest. You start going, oh, what can I do in that game? You see a real conversion of people who want to then come in and try stuff.
There are so many reasons why I have such confidence in the appeal of Sea of Thieves. Strategically we've made some really good decisions around the type of game we're making and how we're bringing it to market. For me, it's about the scale of the opportunity and making the most of the opportunity. That's the pressure I feel. It's like making the most of the opportunity.
Rare hosted another Sea of Thieves beta scale test over the weekend and there will probably be another one ahead of the March 20th launch. Are you planning to purchase the game? If so, you can pre-order from the Store and get a Black Dog outfit, cutlass and matching musical instruments.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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