Support NeoGAF

[ManaByte]

PlayStation, ahoy! How Rare’s pirate adventure Sea of Thieves set sail for a new platform

Six years since its voyage began, the oceanic co-op is landing on PS5 – and the team behind the game can’t wait to empower the creativity of a whole new community of players

www.theguardian.com

One evening many months ago, Mike Chapman, the creative director of the co-op pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves, sat down to play the game with producer Joe Neate. This wasn’t just a standard playtest – joining them online would be a crew of players they’d never taken to the ocean with before. It was a team from Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plan to bring the Xbox exclusive to PS5 had just been hatched; now it was time to get into the detail. “We were educating them about the game, talking through what was special about it,” says Neate. “It was so surreal,” chips in Chapman. “Trying to find treasure on an island with a group from a different platform holder …”

So what was it like to face the prospect of opening the game to a whole new community? “At a leadership level, when we first heard about this as a possibility, it was excitement first. Then: ‘OK, how are we gonna do this?’” says Neate. “The fact we’d already gone to a different platform with Steam helped us to face not only the technical challenge but, also, how to start engaging with a different community in different places and build that reputation.

“This is the first time in Rare’s 40-year history that we’re developing on a Sony platform, which is incredible. It was quite surreal for us, getting on a call and being presented with a set of slides about a platform that we never thought we would get an opportunity to go ship on. But honestly, for our tech team, it was like: ‘Let’s just get kits in and start experimenting and figuring this out.’ We had them hidden away in a secret part of the studio with frosted windows and no one could peek in. It was excitement as much as anything else.”

According to Neate, Rare is working with co-developers who have PlayStation experience, and Sony itself has been extremely helpful, holding regular catchup calls and making its own tech staff available whenever needed – even when the project was still top secret. “If we went and visited their studios, we had to do it not wearing Sea of Thieves T-shirts, as I’m sure you can imagine,” says Neate.

You also don't need PS Plus to play Safer Seas (the solo instances with heavily nerfed progression):

One huge benefit of preparing to welcome a new community is that it has given the team an excuse to stop and think about the game’s structure. Season 11 of the game, which launched in January, was developed with the knowledge that PS5 players would be joining soon, so the onboarding system has been revised. It now offers a much more cogent pirate journey, with content unlocking at a more manageable pace, and a quest board showing where to find new stuff that was once hidden in artefacts or map icons. Rare is also planning to introduce an offline solo mode with the March update. “You won’t need Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus,” says Neate. “If you just want to come and play on your own, you’ll get to play Safer Seas as a solo player so you can experience all of the Tall Tales content and all of the progression through the companies. It’s another way to fall in love with the game before thinking ‘maybe I wanna go get that subscription and start playing multiplayer’.”

 

[Mr Moose]

We had them hidden away in a secret part of the studio with frosted windows and no one could peek in. It was excitement as much as anything else.

Damn, the lengths they had to go to hide this from Phil.

 

[Nok Su Kow]

Oh solo play? does that include the Monkey Island stuff they did?

 

[Big Baller]

 

[Vyse]

Damn, the lengths they had to go to hide this from Phil.

Omg. That made me laugh!

 

[ManaByte]

Oh solo play? does that include the Monkey Island stuff they did?

Yes, you can do all of the Tall Tales in Safer Seas. That includes the normal Tall Tales in the core game, as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island ones.

By default the POTC and Monkey Island Tall Tales send you to a solo instance so you don't even need to be in Safer Seas to do those solo.

 

[Nok Su Kow]

Yes, you can do all of the Tall Tales in Safer Seas. That includes the normal Tall Tales in the core game, as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island ones.

By default the POTC and Monkey Island Tall Tales send you to a solo instance so you don't even need to be in Safer Seas to do those solo.

Excellent! thank you, consider my timbers shivered where they were not previously

 

[ManaByte]

Excellent! thank you, consider my timbers shivered where they were not previously

Be sure to 100% the commendations in POTC to unlock this:

 

[jroc74]

Thats cool.

"one evening many months ago"

Yeah....any other ports this year or even next year was already in the works. This is not something that's done in a few months.

 

[CamHostage]

It's unclear if the PC version of Sea of Thieves will get DualSense support. (Fans are asking since the work is being done for the PS5 port; Rare has not yet responded.) Interestingly though, the list of PC games with DualSense support (of Haptics and Adaptive Triggers, beyond just standard USB/wireless control input handling) is almost all games with simultaneously-made or ported PlayStation versions, yet there is one big exception which now makes a little more sense: Hi-Fi Rush.

Controller:DualSense - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game

www.pcgamingwiki.com

 

[Evil Calvin]

PlayStation, ahoy! How Rare’s pirate adventure Sea of Thieves set sail for a new platform

Six years since its voyage began, the oceanic co-op is landing on PS5 – and the team behind the game can’t wait to empower the creativity of a whole new community of players

www.theguardian.com

You also don't need PS Plus to play Safer Seas (the solo instances with heavily nerfed progression):

Will XSX players need Gamepass to play 'Safer Seas' or will it be FTP?

 

[ManaByte]

Will XSX players need Gamepass to play 'Safer Seas' or will it be FTP?

Says right there in the OP that they don't.

 

[Mr Moose]

Will XSX players need Gamepass to play 'Safer Seas' or will it be FTP?

"You won’t need Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus,” says Neate.

 

[Evil Calvin]

But if you don't have Gamepass will you still need to purchase the game or is it FTP?

 

[saintjules]

 

[Mr Moose]

But if you don't have Gamepass will you still need to purchase the game or is it FTP?

You have to buy it. MP is locked behind sub, solo no sub required.

 

[Draugoth]

According to Joe Neate, the game's producer, throughout the port's development, Sony helped the team a lot, holding meetings with Rare staff and even providing their own employees whenever they needed them.

Even when the project was still a secret, Sony was already working closely with Rare to make it possible. "If we went to visit their studios, we had to go without wearing a Sea of Thieves T-shirt, as you can imagine why," commented the producer.

“This is the first time in Rare’s 40-year history that we’re developing on a Sony platform, which is incredible. It was quite surreal for us, getting on a call and being presented with a set of slides about a platform that we never thought we would get an opportunity to go ship on. But honestly, for our tech team, it was like: ‘Let’s just get kits in and start experimenting and figuring this out.’ We had them hidden away in a secret part of the studio with frosted windows and no one could peek in. It was excitement as much as anything else.”

via TheGuardian

 

[simpatico]

They just need to collab on consoles going forward. Let MS do the software and online services, Sony can tackle the hardware (aside from controller) and first party studios. Best of both worlds.

 

[killatopak]

Organic.

Time for Sony to buy Microsoft.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Sony:

 

[Agent X]

It's interesting to see Sony and Microsoft come together to cooperate on a project like this.

 

[FrankWza]

That explains all the preorders

 

[Gudji]

Nice it's good to see sony smoothing out the transition.

 

[twilo99]

Sony is such a nice person..

 

[Badlucktroll]

The inevitable “Sony collaborates with 343” article will be one for the record books

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

i mean, Sony collaborates with third parties all the time. where is the news here?

 

[Solidus_T]

There's a lot of money to be made

 

[FullMetalx117]

They just need to collab on consoles going forward. Let MS do the software and online services, Sony can tackle the hardware (aside from controller) and first party studios. Best of both worlds.

At this point, as a long time Xbox fan/controller fan, the DualSense outclasses Xbox controller. Msft hardware team stuck on Xbox one gen. They couldn’t even get the 360 version analog sticks right.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Thread on this already up here

Rare worked with Sony to bring Sea of Thieves to PS5

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/mar/08/sea-of-thieves-playstation-5-launch-rare One evening many months ago, Mike Chapman, the creative director of the co-op pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves, sat down to play the game with producer Joe Neate. This wasn’t just a standard playtest –...

www.neogaf.com

 

[JohnnyFootball]

How did they keep this hidden from Jez?

 

[Sleepwalker]

They just need to collab on consoles going forward. Let MS do the software and online services, Sony can tackle the hardware (aside from controller) and first party studios. Best of both worlds.

No thanks.

 

[Panajev2001a]

At this point, as a long time Xbox fan/controller fan, the DualSense outclasses Xbox controller. Msft hardware team stuck on Xbox one gen. They couldn’t even get the 360 version analog sticks right.

But they did improve the DPad a lot while DS’s DPad got a bit worse.

 

[simpatico]

At this point, as a long time Xbox fan/controller fan, the DualSense outclasses Xbox controller. Msft hardware team stuck on Xbox one gen. They couldn’t even get the 360 version analog sticks right.

Haven't gotten my hands on a Series controller yet. Still rocking the One on my PC.

 

[Horseganador]

While here they were discussing exclusives like Starfield, Forza or Hifi Rush, months ago the Xbox teams were receiving PS5 kits to start porting, surreal.

 

[adamsapple]

Coalition is probably assisting porting over Helldiver's 2.

 

[Banjo64]

I wonder what the platinum will look like on this.

There’s 259 Achievements totalling 5k+ Gamerscore.

I’d struggle to name another PS game with anything close to 259 Trophies.

 

[Robb]

 

[LordCBH]

There’s 259 Achievements totalling 5k+

Jesus tapdancing christ. I knew there were a lot but DAYUM. Only other game I can think of with that many is MCC, but that’s also a compilation of like 6 games

Edit: And MCC may not have quite that many, I can’t remember. I just know it’s a lot.

 

[nush]

They worked with Sony to bring a game to PS5? Well.. duhhhh.

 

[ManaByte]

I wonder what the platinum will look like on this.

There’s 259 Achievements totalling 5k+ Gamerscore.

I’d struggle to name another PS game with anything close to 259 Trophies.

They also add new achievements all the time.

 

[IFireflyl]

Jesus tapdancing christ. I knew there were a lot but DAYUM. Only other game I can think of with that many is MCC, but that’s also a compilation of like 6 games

Edit: And MCC may not have quite that many, I can’t remember. I just know it’s a lot.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has a whopping 700 achievements. But as you said, it's a collection of games.

 

[LordCBH]

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has a whopping 700 achievements. But as you said, it's a collection of games.

Holy shit. I just had to look it up. I’ve unlocked a whopping like 250 of those 700 lol. I just could not remember how many it had

 

[IFireflyl]

I’ve unlocked a whopping like 250 of those 700 lol.

I am at 661 of 700. The rest, I believe, are multiplayer achievements. I'm not going to bother with those as I love Halo for the single-player campaigns.

 

[Mobilemofo]

I don't like the art style. It's a bit too cartoony for me. Admittedly, I've only looked at screenshots but yeah..not for me.

 

[The Stig]

I wonder what the platinum will look like on this.

There’s 259 Achievements totalling 5k+ Gamerscore.

I’d struggle to name another PS game with anything close to 259 Trophies.

Civ 6 has 320 on steam and was ported to PS4 so maybe that?

 

[King Dazzar]

Excellent! thank you, consider my timbers shivered where they were not previously

Yeah, as I said in the other thread. The solo experience is pretty shit imo. As the OP says, heavily nerfed progression. But the biggest issue for me is that the ships are designed around multiple crew members. Anybody trying to put this out there as a single player experience, whilst not mentioning the downsides is being a tad disingenuous. At the very least they should mention its major drawbacks. This is a co-op/multiplayer focused game. Dont even go in thinking its like Borderlands where by you can get on fine doing it all lone wolf.

 

[havoc00]

Us Xbros who are veterans in this game will make your game a living hell, thats a warning blue squad

 

[King Dazzar]

Us Xbros who are veterans in this game will make your game a living hell, thats a warning blue squad

Hey there are no more Xbros, we're all one big happy family now. Everywhere, every screen, every hole's a vagina and all that.

 

[havoc00]

Hey there are no more Xbros, we're all one big happy family now. Everywhere, every screen, every hole's a vagina and all that.

 

[ManaByte]

Us Xbros who are veterans in this game will make your game a living hell, thats a warning blue squad

Fresh baby seals to club. They do get a private beta to practice in though.