Game:

Sea of Thieves (2018)

Duration: 4:52

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Sea of Thieves is already a hit, but Microsoft needs to make it a success.
Sea of Thieves buzz is hot coming out of its closed beta on Xbox One and Windows 10. It had one of the biggest audiences on livestreaming sites like Twitch and Mixer over the last week, and a huge number of people seem excited for its March 20 release.

The online cooperative pirate simulator from developer Rare and publisher Microsoft had a closed beta that ran through January 31. It’s simultaneously realistic and a cartoonish as players work together to adjust sail length to catch the wind but can also get shot out of a canon to fly through the air. That is a winning combination, whether you’re playing with friends or strangers (with headsets and a vocabulary bigger than racial epithets).

But while the general tone and interactions have me convinced, I’m still unsure about its long-term prospects.

The beta, which was open to anyone who preordered Sea of Thieves, at least accomplished the goal of keeping me excited for the final product — and I’m not alone. The wider consensus on social media and forums ranges from fevered anticipation at best to amused curiosity at worst (outliers exist, of course). Sea of Thieves is a hit. It’s something that Microsoft can point to as evidence of its ability to create something new that players are excited to play and even watch.

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