Sea of Thieves

As April showers clamour to make themselves known, we’ve realised it’s probably time to tick the Round-Up off our monthly to-do list and catch you up on all the major happenings of the last month. And thus, here we are! Settle in, obtain a beverage of your choosing and let’s get to it.

Content Update
As always, a new month meant a new content update, complete with handy release notes containing all the details. This one was headlined by the arrival of the much-anticipated anti-cheat system, the ability for players with no live service subscription to still play solo on Safer Seas, and a waterfall of wondrous cosmetics – both in the Pirate Emporium (where they were joined by a cut-price Classics range) and at the Outpost shops. There was also a fresh makeover for an old friend, with a bit of help from one of Madame Olivia’s Pirate Appearance Potions!

March marked Sea of Thieves’ sixth anniversary too, and it wasn’t like we were about to let that pass without a celebratory Event. Enter the Legendary Message in a Bottle Voyages, offering tantalisingly valuable Athena’s Fortune treasure for any pirates willing to track them down. Completing one of these also granted players the glittering Seaglass Rapier to help them commemorate the momentous milestone. Really makes you wonder who keeps making all this glass, doesn’t it?

News and Features
The standout news of March was the arrival of Sea of Thieves pre-orders on PlayStation®5! Not only did this mean that players on the new platform could stake their claim well before launch, it revealed the three new editions of the game coming to all platforms for 2024, and the host of goodies accompanying each one.

New players weren’t the only thing to get excited about in the month of our sixth anniversary, and we dropped a recap article on the day itself to walk you through all this year’s tie-in activities. Handily, March also hosted Season 11’s round of Style of Thieves and ensured everyone was dressed to the nines for the occasion!

In community news, we had another Creator Spotlight to bring you as we introduced Pufferson, a seasoned Slooper and proud winner of Last Ship Standing. She was happy to share her journey from World of Warcraft to Sea of Thieves, and how studying UX design ultimately led her into content creation.

Outside the game, March also welcomed a new Sea of Thieves addition to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks programme in the form of the Kraken Classic Bundle! Lore fans were treated to the third instalment of the Sea Dog’s Search comic series where Lesedi continued the desperate hunt for her brother’s soul, while music fans were able to savour the stirring ‘Treasury Ambush’, our latest streaming soundtrack addition.

Videos and Streams
With both anniversary and PS5® announcements in March, it only made sense to kick off the month with a new episode of Sea of Thieves News. As well as lining up bottles for the forthcoming Event, this instalment gave our Production Director and resident technical news-deliverer Drew a chance to reveal more details on the Easy Anti-Cheat system. And to plead for a little mercy on behalf of all the new players, but we’re not sure anyone listened to that bit.

Speaking of new players, the reveal of PS5 pre-orders marked a new chapter for our little pirate paradise and we wanted our branding to reflect that. To that end, we didn’t just release a new trailer for said pre-orders but also a freshly updated #BeMorePirate trailer for the game itself, reflecting on a full six years of updates, expansions and refinements. Here’s to many more to come!

And, as we look to the future of Sea of Thieves, it made sense to complete our anniversary celebrations with an inside look at what’s going to be arriving in the upcoming year. That meant rounding up Sea of Thieves team members to spill the beans on Seasons 12, 13 and 14, then compressing all their answers into a 20-minute Preview Event! What future update are you most excited about? It’s owls, isn’t it? It’s always owls.

Social Channels
After all the excitements of February, we wanted to at least try to start March in a calmer mood. That meant digging into Sea of Thieves’ sound effects and coming up with the most soothing ASMR we could find amidst all the burning ships and flag revelations. Of course, the peace and quiet could never last for long, especially when a certain member of the team decided to go undercover and staunchly refused to come back.

Fortunately, the lure of a new #SoTShot round was enough to bring the whole team back together, and we collectively delighted in everyone’s take on Radical Rowboats. Not to be left out, the Community Hub was also due for an update as we celebrated more amazing art, crafts and creations produced by players.

From there, the anniversary celebrations had us reminiscing on some of our earliest days at sea, and admiring how much we’ve all changed since then – as well as looking forward to where we’re going next. After that, all that was left was to keep an eye out for suspicious boarders, imagine a strange new world for Megalodons, and uncover the greatest treasure of all. Who could resist that face?

And so we came to the end of March! It’s a very exciting time for Sea of Thieves right now, hopping from an anniversary to the imminent prospect of a new platform launch and a new Season, so thank you for being here with us for all of it. As always, if you’ve got any feedback or burning questions you want to hurl our way, find us on the usual channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and the official Forums and Discord. Otherwise, there’s much more to come throughout April, so stick with us! We’ll see you again soon…

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Six years! Who’d have thought it? It was on this day in 2018 that Sea of Thieves came crashing into the world and we’re still here cooking up new features, you’re still here playing them and we love you for that, and the seas are about to get busier than ever when PlayStation®5 players join in with our ungovernable shenanigans next month.

So how are we marking the anniversary this year? Mainly by letting you in on a whole treasure trove of secrets. We’ve got plenty planned for the next few Seasons and thought you might enjoy a taster of what’s on the horizon, which you can get simply by tuning in to the special 2024 Preview Event video on our YouTube or Twitch channels as of today.

Press play now to learn about new features on the way to spice up the Sea of Thieves sandbox in 2024! Exciting new weapons? Check. Inventive new tools? Yep. The return of Flameheart and the Burning Blade? Oh, don’t let us spoil it, just watch it:

Of course, there has to be an in-game sixth anniversary celebration too. This year it comes in the form of the Sixth Anniversary Celebration, an Event name that took weeks to pull together. Running from March 20th-25th, this sees Legendary Messages in a Bottle washing up on shorelines and settling into shipwrecks all across the Sea of Thieves, rich with promise and ready for the taking. In each one is a Voyage leading to Athena’s Fortune treasure, and you won’t even need to be a Pirate Legend to go get it.

Cosmetic rewards? Naturally: just setting sail while this Event is active will award you the anniversary gift of a Golden Sailor Capstan, while pirates who complete enough Voyages sourced from these Legendary bottles can tool up with the thematically appropriate Seaglass Rapier.

Did we mention Gold & Glory? That’s right, you can also earn double gold, reputation, Seasonal Renown, Allegiance and Guild Reputation via Gold & Glory boosts while this Event is live from March 20th-25th. Get involved!

Can we interest you in Pirate Emporium bargains to accompany your other earnings? We can? Nice, as there’s an Anniversary Sale kicking off today. This one runs from March 20th-28th, with discounts on fabulous cosmetics from Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island and the ever-popular Dark Warsmith collection. The elusive Reaper’s Mark Sails are briefly back in stock too, while the Conductor Emote can be freely claimed by all visitors to the Pirate Emporium for the duration of the sale.

We always say there’s no slowing down for Sea of Thieves, but we really have sailed into 2024 ready to battle hard on behalf of players, set on sustaining this world as a place for you to seek adventure and make memories with your crew. Putting in the work at the end of last year to secure Season 11’s January launch was a statement of intent; the 2024 Preview Event, along with our ongoing focus to keep improving in areas such as hit registration and anti-cheat, show that we’re still in this for the long haul. We’d love it if you were there too, to find out exactly what else is coming over the horizon.

Sea of Thieves Season 12 and all its knife-throwing, ziplining, double-barrelling action will launch on April 30th. Until then, we hope you enjoy the Preview Event, the Sixth Anniversary Celebration and the time remaining to ramp up your Renown and unlock all Season 11’s rewards! Frorb forever.

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As Season 11 bobs along, occasionally dipping below the waves so it can crash back above them in dramatic fashion, we’re slowly ticking off the usual Seasonal activities. But if there’s one thing that players keep asking about in our social replies that’s yet to make its debut, it’s Anti-Cheat. Good news you lot, that’s just arrived in the March update!

If there’s another thing we see the odd mention of (not so many it’s annoying, but just enough that it causes a little irritation right on the small of the back where you just can’t scratch no matter how well you contort, or how fancy your hook) it’s people wondering when the next Style of Thieves contest will be. Well get ready, because we’re about to write it… any second now…

Sea of Thieves Season 11’s Style of Thieves contest will take place from March 25th-28th!

Phew, there we go. Definitely the biggest secret we’ve had to hold on to for quite some time. Usual advice applies – while you’re more than welcome to try on some threads and take your pictures in advance, those four days, March 25th-28th, will open the 24-hour windows in which to enter this Season’s four themes via social media channels.

Once a theme opens for entry (you’ll know because we’ll make a post announcing it), it’s up to you to share your stylish screenshots, including the name of the theme you’re entering and any other relevant information. Scroll down and read the How to Enter section for a rundown of the full rules and advice.

Once a theme has closed, our crew will pore over every entry to select the sailors they feel found the most fascinating fits (by their questionable taste, at least). That list is then chiselled into stone and dropped onto the desk of the nearest member of our Art team, with potentially destructive results. Regardless of whether their desk survives, they’ll have the final decision on up to 21 winning pirates.

Three winners per category, meaning 12 entries total, will take home a pair of the Fashionista’s Finery Gloves – and for the first time in a main Style of Thieves contest, one of our categories is open to groups of three and four pirates! The plan is then to announce the winning pirates via social channels on April 4th. And remember – even if you don’t win, it’s all a bit of fun, and we hope you enjoy exploring some fresh looks for your pirate.

Right, let’s talk about what we want you to dress up like this time…

The Themes
Each theme will start at 10am UTC on the dates detailed below with entries accepted via a variety of social media channels for a full 24 hours.

Red Carpet
Embrace the glamorous side of the whole pirating business and dress to impress with an outfit designed for striking a pose every five seconds.
Entry date: March 25th

Castaway
from torn sleeves to scraggly beards, reject hygiene and tell us a tale of survival through slovenly style.
Entry date: March 26th

Pop Band
Gather a group of three or four pirates and select complementary clothing that would pop on a poster and have your fans fawning. The outfits simply need to give the impression of a musical group, and don’t need to be based on a real act. Please remember to name the other pirates you’re posing with.
Entry date: March 27th

Artist
From passionate painters to tortured souls, don some duds that express your pirates’ capacity for expression to the world.
Entry date: March 28th

Image credit: @destmorr on Twitter/X

How to Enter
Now into the part of the article that’s the same every time. We’ve got eyes everywhere, in a nice ‘enter however you feel comfortable’ kind of way, so you’re free to submit on a variety of social channels. That said, each comes with its own quirks as follows:

• To enter on Twitter/X, make sure you include @SeaOfThieves and #StyleOfThieves in your post.
  
• For Instagram, you just need to post using #StyleOfThieves.
  
• Add your entry as a reply to that day’s theme post on Facebook.
  
• Post your entry with #StyleOfThieves in the #pirate-fashion channel of our official Discord server.

And regardless of where you’re sharing your entry, be sure to include the name of the theme you’re entering in your post, along with any extra info called for by the theme.

Rules of the Runway
We’ve put together some handy hints and rules to make sure you capture your pirate’s best side and don’t accidentally enter an ineligible picture:

• No Costumes on the catwalk – we want to see your creativity and individuality in how you mix and match items, so no all-in-one Costumes.
  
• Complete cosmetic sets are not permitted. Our artists designed those items to go together and, again, we want to see stylish creativity. Ideally, an outfit should contain no more than four items from the same named set, but as long as creativity from multiple styles is evident then your outfit will be accepted.
  
• Unless a theme calls for it, like the Pop Band theme in this Season, all shots should be solo pirates and not crews. Only the pirate(s) in the picture will be eligible for the prize.
  
• Find a simple or plain background to pose against to let your outfit pop. Backgrounds and locations will not be considered when judging the outfit.
  
• Lighting helps, so find a well-lit spot to fully peacock your picks. Coloured or tactical lighting won’t be considered part of the outfit.
  
• Toggle off your HUD for a clean snap and avoid a name getting in the way! If you haven’t set it, the Toggle HUD command can be assigned to a button from the HUD category of the Keyboard and Mouse or Controller area of your Settings menu.
  
• Screenshots should be a reflection of the game – no external editing or filters should be applied.
  
• Keep your submissions to a 16:9 or 1:1 ratio, making sure your entire outfit is in shot. This will help us when framing winners, and ensures a degree of parity when comparing submissions.
  
• While you may use any emotes for your shot, any features added to the outfit via the emote (e.g. oars, weapons, sparklers) won’t be taken into consideration as part of an outfit during judging.
  
• One shortlist will be compiled per theme, using entries across all platforms, meaning it’s not necessary to post your submission to all channels. If you make sure you use the correct tags, we will see it!
  
• The unique prize means you can’t win more than once in Style of Thieves, but you’re more than welcome to continue entering for the fun of it!

Image credit: @Ankerwisp on Twitter/X

Right, done. That should be everything you need to know to enter the next round of Style of Thieves between March 25th and 28th, 2024. Time once more to find your frocks and ponder your pants, and we wish you good luck. Have fun!

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Game Improvements
Easy Anti-Cheat

• Sea of Thieves is now protected by Easy Anti-Cheat, the industry-leading anti-cheat solution designed by Epic Games to identify and address instances of hacking and cheating in multiplayer games.
  
• This anti-cheat solution will be updated outside of Sea of Thieves’ regular update schedule to keep in sync with cheat developers.

Updates
Virtual Keyboard Support

• Players summoning the Virtual Keyboard inside the game will now find that a range of new languages are supported: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

Message of the Day

• Players will now experience a Message of the Day when arriving in the front end menu, highlighting current Season features, upcoming content and other exciting news within the world of Sea of Thieves.

Adventures Tab

• The Adventures tab has been hidden from the Quick Menu for a more streamlined navigation experience.

Report a Player

• The in-game Report a Player tool has now been extended, providing players with easy access to a web-based route for making a more detailed report through the Sea of Thieves Support site.

Pirate Emporium
Show off your personal style with purchases from the Pirate Emporium! Pick up exclusive cosmetics such as ship liveries, costumes, weapons, pets and emotes using your Ancient Coins, purchasable with real money. Head to the Pirate Emporium to find out more!

New Items – Now in Stock!

• Stone Islehopper Outlaw Ship Collection
  
• Stone Islehopper Outlaw Weapon Bundle
  
• Stone Islehopper Outlaw Costume
  
• Stone Islehopper Outlaw Banjo
  
• Roaring Grog Emote Bundle
  
• Gold Curse Whippet
  
• Spartan Ship Collection (returning from time-limited promotion)
  
• Ravenwood Costume Set (returning from Season Eight Plunder Pass)
  
• Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life Big Bundles
  
• Blow Bubbles Emote (free!)

Introducing the Classics Range

• A range of older ship collections are moving into a Classics range within the Emporium, and will be permanently reduced in price. Further sets will be added to the range in future after being available in the game for a number of years.
  
• The Classics range currently includes 15 fan-favourite ship sets including the Cutthroat, Sea of Sands and Bear & Bird collections.

Outpost Cosmetics
New Outpost Stock!

• The Outpost shipwrights have received a new shipment of items from the Maestro set. Players are now able to purchase Maestro ship parts after unlocking The Artistic Souls Commendation.
  
• The Outpost shops now offer items from the Flourishing Wild Rose set, with ship parts along with the Heavy Sword and Rapier available after unlocking the Always Yours Commendation.
  
• For those wishing to collect further items from the Wild Rose and Thriving Wild Rose sets, the Heavy Swords and Rapiers are now available after unlocking the Always Yours Commendation.
  
• The Outpost clothing shops also offer a range of new beards and hairstyles, with the Wild Rose Waxed Hair, Floral Hair and Beard along with the windswept Sweeping Hair.

Fixed Issues
Gameplay

• Crews diving to an experience or Faction battle and surfacing alongside another ship should no longer encounter issues where items on board their ship become non-interactable.
  
• After losing a battle with an emergent Skeleton Ship or Megalodon, players will now receive a longer rest period before being attacked again.
  
• The frequency of sharks appearing when players set foot in the water has now returned to normal levels.
  
• Improved directional stick input detection on controllers and returned dead zone and response curve controls.
  
• Console players can once again use a mouse and keyboard with full compatibility.
  
• Sailor’s Knot Stronghold becoming a Skeleton Fort or Fort of Fortune encounter will now consistently be defended by skeletons.
  
• Buried treasure will no longer migrate with the crew across servers.
  
• Players will no longer find treasure from a Sea Fort or Siren Shrine reappears after leaving and returning to a cleared area.
  
• Diving to an Athena’s Fortune Ashen Lord encounter will now consistently reward players with Athena’s Fortune treasure.
  
• The correct treasure will now be dropped from ships on Skeleton Fleet Voyages and after defeating an Athena’s Fortune Ashen Lord.
  
• Players can no longer use a Storage Crate to generate additional resources from their ship barrels.
  
• Players should now consistently have access to their earned Guild cosmetics.
  
• The Gold Hoarders Vault Voyage has been updated to prevent players from predicting the location of the treasure.
  
• All Raid Voyage Commendations now unlock consistently for the relevant Trading Companies on completion.
  
• The Pirate Lord will now be present at the end of the Order of Souls Trading Company tutorial.
  
• The first session tutorial will now show for all new players, but will be stopped once a player has interacted with the Quest Table or proposed a Voyage.
  
• Players are now able to interact with the shipwright when docked at the Sovereigns’ tent on Sanctuary Outpost.
  
• Quest notes will now be removed from a player’s inventory at the correct time after completing a Coral Message in a Bottle Voyage.
  
• Ammo Pouches left on board a sinking Skeleton Ship will now sink with the ship.
  
• Selling Dark Relics will now progress the Treasures Sold to the Order of Souls Captaincy Milestone.
  
• The Shrouded Ghost Figurehead will now be unlocked consistently when players have completed the Hunter of the Shrouded Ghost Commendation.
  
• Phantoms should now be able to hit stationary players with their lunging attack.
  
• Using the harpoon to bring treasure aboard during the Gold Hoarders tutorial will now continue to progress the Voyage.
  
• Two players performing the Make Friends Emote together will now summon the Add Friends menu as intended.

Environment

• Players will no longer find themselves being transported back to their ship when navigating around The Reaper’s Lair.
  
• Players will no longer find themselves becoming stuck in the rocks beneath the Glorious Sea Dog Tavern.
  
• Players will no longer find themselves falling through the environment when swimming near the pier at the Fort of the Damned.
  
• Environment textures are now displayed correctly at Devil’s Ridge.
  
• Players will no longer be able to swim in areas that do not contain water inside the Shrine of Ocean’s Fortune.
  
• ‘Captains of the Damned’ – Players will now consistently reappear in the correct place aboard the Silver Blade after returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
  
• ‘Captains of the Damned’ – Tree foliage is no longer visible in the sky within the bayou.
  
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – Plants will no longer appear distorted when viewed from a distance.

User Interface

• The notification for a ship taking damage will no longer remain on screen after players have repaired the ship.
  
• A new tutorial notification has been added, prompting players to go to their Quest Table to access newly unlocked Voyages after claiming a relevant Trading Company promotion.
  
• Players are now consistently able to rename their ship without seeing an error message.
  
• When players unlock The Mysteries of the Sunken Kingdom Commendation, the notification now shows the correct place to purchase the quest from in future.
  
• Completing the Merchant Alliance tutorial no longer displays a banner about a lost Chicken Coop.
  
• Players can now left-click on the Discover panel to access the corresponding menu location.
  
• Promotion certificates have received a visual upgrade, fixing some text size and overlap issues and including glowing animations.
  
• All Commendation notification backgrounds are now themed to the appropriate Trading Company.
  
• When a Tall Tale is proposed on the Quest Table, the info card has been given an improved layout and now shows checkpoint status. This UI is also shown when interacting with a Tall Tale Quest Book in the world.
  
• Players diving to a Siren Shrine on behalf of the Order of Souls or Merchant Alliance will no longer see Gold Hoarder-themed imagery when taking gold from Collector’s Chests.
  
• The Quest Table will now update to show Liked Voyages after being liked.
  
• The prompt to use the Quest Table is no longer visible when a Voyage is active.

Visual and Audio

• Players should now consistently see their ship name adorning their Ship’s Crest when joining a session.
  
• Lost Shipment Voyage maps will no longer appear with black squares over island icons.
  
• Phantoms performing their teleport attack will now be visible as they prepare to attack.
  
• Phantoms performing their lunge attack will now appear to travel smoothly towards the player.
  
• Skeletons should always flinch when successfully hit by a sword.
  
• Continuously heavy striking a Skeleton Captain will now cause it to visually stumble backwards each time without sliding.
  
• Players who have migrated across servers should no longer appear on fire to other players on occasion.
  
• Flags on Sea Forts have now returned to their original colours.
  
• The lighting effect for objects viewed underwater will now appear correctly when these objects are positioned between the player and the shimmering effect of a Shrine.
  
• The Quest Table on rival ships will now appear correctly during an Hourglass battle.
  
• The Pirate Lord will now appear correctly when walking in on the outro cutscenes in Trading Company tutorials.
  
• Players of all different sizes will now sit comfortably on the back of a Sloop without floating.
  
• Pirates’ fingers will no longer appear to merge into the strings of the Reaper’s Heart Banjo.
  
• Repeatedly aiming down sights on certain Eye of Reach models will no longer cause the top of the screen to flicker.
  
• The Reaper’s Heart Tankard contents will no longer appear to drain before players have finished drinking.
  
• Skulls, Vault Keys and Collector’s Chests buried in the caves of Smugglers’ Bay will now be correctly marked on treasure maps.
  
• The art on the splash screens has now been updated to the Season 11 artwork.
  
• The Ragamuffin Outfit of the Wailing Barnacle no longer causes the cat’s chin to merge into its body when held by a player.
  
• Pirates with larger body types will no longer appear to merge into the environment when using outdoor sitting spots.
  
• The flag used to show a Fort is active will now be displayed at a greater distance.
  
• The Crab Ocean Crawler now turns at the correct speed and animates more smoothly as a result.
  
• Messages in a Bottle now appear with the correct glint effect when viewed from a distance.
  
• The Capsize Charters tent is now present on buried treasure maps.
  
• The Maestro Banjo icon has been resized so that the item is no longer cut off at the top.
  
• Chest keys will no longer appear to sink into players’ hands.
  
• The Reaper’s Heart Equipment Bundle now appears with the correct artwork.
  
• Jumping while holding a fishing rod will no longer cause the player to appear incorrectly when viewed by others.

Text and Localisation

• Notifications shown when attempting to sell an item to the wrong character will now always direct them to the right character.
  
• Larinna’s dialogue no longer refers to buying Voyages from Trading Company representatives.
  
• Merchant Crates all now have consistent naming.
  
• ‘A Pirate’s Life’ – The Cursed Captain’s name is now shown in the subtitles when speaking during chess game interactions.
  
• ‘Wild Rose’ – Madame Olive’s subtitles are now showing fully during the Tale.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – Instances of overlapping text in the Tall Tale Quest Book have been addressed in non-English languages.
  
• ‘The Legendary Storyteller’ – German localisation within the Quest Book is now shown correctly.

Performance and Stability

• Improved game stability to reduce scenarios where players experience an unexpected exit from the game or become disconnected from their session.
  
• Ongoing improvements made to client and server performance, reducing the frequency of high ping spikes, desync and rubberbanding while playing.
  
• Improved Steam client stability when playing on Custom Servers.

Known Issues
To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

Download and Installation
Download Size:

• Steam: 3.86 GB

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Spring is just starting to bloom here at Rare HQ, which means it’s time we got around to the brisk business of rounding up February’s developments! It was a briskly busy month that boasted some extremely exciting announcements, so let’s jump right into the recap…

Content Update
As always, we had a monthly update ready to go, this time integrating Sea of Thieves with the latest Xbox Game Development Kit, making some visual and technical tweaks to various systems – and, most importantly, introducing the first Collector’s Pet fox as the Reaper’s Heart set expanded again in the month of love. For a full rundown of all February’s changes and additions, or just to find out what on earth GDK integration actually means, stop by the relevant release notes and have a read.

With the update behind us, we found ourselves squaring up to another Season’s Community Weekend! That meant encouraging all you fine folks to take to Twitch and watch Sea of Thieves streams, getting that shared Community Emissary Grade up before setting sail and reaping all those increased rewards. At the same time, new Pop-Up Plunder maps had pirates racing to uncover valuable treasures across the seas! All you had to do was find it…

News and Features
One specific piece of Sea of Thieves news somewhat eclipsed the rest this month, but before that, we had to make sure everyone was fully prepared for Season 11 Community Weekend! Early in the month, our Head of Comms Christina stopped by with all the details and a peek at the goodies on offer for anyone who took part.

Then it was time for the big reveal: Sea of Thieves is coming to PlayStation®5 this April, bringing countless more players in to join the crowds merrily playing on our current platforms! This momentous news obviously raised a lot of questions – namely when we can expect this flood of fresh-faced sailors to arrive – so we made sure there was a full article with all the info ready to unleash following the announcement.

Even with all this going on, our regularly scheduled programming continued with fresh Spotlight features: a Creator Spotlight with Jon Bardcore, digging into his journey from a two-year-old with a NES to a fully-fledged content creator, and a Community Spotlight on Captain McGuffin, Head of Forensics at Ancient Isles University and contributor to the Sea of Thieves Portugal community. Give them a read!

Videos and Streams
Getting into the business of the regular content update and Seasonal Community Weekend early in the month, the video team fired off February’s instalment of Sea of Thieves News to get everyone up to speed. Not long after that, the update made its debut and we got to delight in some of the new cosmetics arriving on the seas.

Bringing Sea of Thieves to a whole new platform is extremely exciting news for all of us, so of course we were going to have a little fun with the announcement videos. That meant finally responding to some historic player-submitted messages, before bringing various team members together to share their thoughts on this new chapter for our favourite pirate playground.

With that news out in the world, it was time for our Season 11 Community Weekend, and with it a Community team Twitch stream! As well as offering another option for watching and contributing to the Community Emissary Grade, the stream also let us support our friends over at SpecialEffect and raise money for the wonderful GameBlast24. Thank you to everyone who joined us and for all the amazing donations, helping us to raise over £40,000 for a fantastic charity!

Social Channels
Picture-loving pirates had another two rounds of #SoTShot to enjoy in February: firstly sharing some love for their favourite stories outside the Sea of Thieves with creative costuming for the Cosplay Corsairs theme, then, after the Trading Companies complained about being left out, competing to represent their favourite Company in increasingly elaborate ways. Not to be outdone, the Community Hub also featured a fresh line-up, celebrating everything from a perfect loot steal to the friends we really did make along the way.

Player creations weren’t the only things earning some appreciation: we kicked off February by asking everyone to spend a couple of minutes enjoying the majesty of Season 11’s title screen music (while expanding the repertoire of our official soundtrack on all the usual streaming platforms), before getting sidetracked by that same screen’s troublesome bowsprit. At least nobody had time to get too upset about that before being further derailed by discussions of which Shipmate Trinket is the best Shipmate Trinket (the answer is that they’re all the best Shipmate Trinket, don’t listen to that tweet).

All that debate was exhausting, but it didn’t take long to get into another conversation about which island is the best island to run around. Fortunately, by that point Community Weekend was imminent and Picture Wall selfies were providing ample distraction. So much so, in fact, that we got a little too excited when trying to take our own… no matter. The end of the month was fast approaching, so we capped things off with a few tasty jellybeans.

And that was February! Shortest month of the year it may be, but we all managed to get plenty done, don’t you think? Remember, if you want to share your thoughts or keep up with the news as it happens, check in with us on all the usual social channels: Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and the official Forums and Discord. Otherwise, we’ll be over here trying to find a better word than ‘sink’. Bye!

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Previously:
Sea of Thieves Round-Up: January 2024

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