Watch ten minutes of Rare’s Sea of Thieves in motion

Sea of Thieves is Rare’s upcoming seafaring pirate sandbox that’s due to launch/dock next year. Similar to the studio’s back catalogue of games, this ‘un boasts some typically easy-on-the-eye cartoon-like visuals—a sizeable chunk of which was showcased at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. 

Rare revealed a snippet of gameplay at E3 in June—Tom also went hands-on (deck)—however the hour-long panel at SDCC saw the British developer discuss the game’s premise, what inspired its art direction, and some of the things we’ll be doing within as we island-hop across its idyllic bounds. 

The panel in full can viewed over here, however YouTube person Arekkz Gaming has boiled the best segments of footage down to just ten minutes. Over to him:

Plenty of speculation there, but the most intriguing part for me relates to the game’s day and night and weather cycles, and how both are tied to exploration. That runs from around 3.42 in the video above if you’re keen to learn more about that. 

If you’re new to the party, though, you might want to check out the first instalment of Rare’s ‘Inn-Side Story’ miniseries, within which executive producer Joe Neate and design director Gregg Mayles ask: What is Sea of Thieves. Over to them:

Sea of Thieves is due to launch early next year as a Microsoft cross-buy Play Anywhere game.