Support NeoGAF

[BionicRoo]

Rare just revealed that Sea of Thieves is now played by more than five million people. But this game seems like Marmite, some people love it, others aren't so keen. I love it!

Full story: https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/20...y-more-than-five-million-people-rare-reveals/

 

[Shuguy]

I have gamepass so I may as well check this out. Only problem is I already have so many games I want to finish.

 

[dirthead]

Really wish someone would step up to the plate and deliver a true next generation MMO. It's fucking 2018 and WOW still hasn't been topped. That's just embarrassing for the entire species.

I'm really disappointed by how badly Blizzard dropped the ball on Overwatch and what it turned into. It should have been so much more.

It's crazy when you think about the fact that less time went by between Super Metroid and World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft and today. That much time has passed and no one has actually taken that genre forward. It's pathetic.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Really wish someone would step up to the plate and deliver a true next generation MMO. It's fucking 2018 and WOW still hasn't been topped. That's just embarrassing for the entire species.

I'm really disappointed by how badly Blizzard dropped the ball on Overwatch and what it turned into. It should have been so much more.

It's crazy when you think about the fact that less time went by between Super Metroid and World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft and today. That much time has passed and no one has actually taken that genre forward. It's pathetic.

Sea of Thieves isn't an MMO.

 

[onlyoneno1]

Woah, that's a lot of people for what people claim to be a tanked game.

 

[dirthead]

Sea of Thieves isn't an MMO.

That's Rare/Microsoft's marketing line, but whatever, it's an MMO mechanically. I can understand the "it's missing the massive" argument against that, but really, you could make the same argument about WOW at this point with its sharded instanced bullshit. Neither one is really "massive."

 

[Codes 208]

That's Rare/Microsoft's marketing line, but whatever, it's an MMO mechanically. I can understand the "it's missing the massive" argument against that, but really, you could make the same argument about WOW at this point with its sharded instanced bullshit. Neither one is really "massive."

Its an MMO in the same way a game like destiny is an MMO where its not technically an mmo, youre just sharing a world with various players simultaneously, so more of a lite-MMO (if even that)

 

[Memorabilia]

Has the lack of content problem been addressed? I feel like this is a game i personally wouldn't enjoy until its been built upon for a couple years.

 

[stargateheaven]

Woah, that's a lot of people for what people claim to be a tanked game.

To be fair, gamepass helps alot.

For me, it was good until you realise there wasn't much else to do. A kind of no man's sky situation. Hopefully alot more content comes at some point.

 

[AgentP]

Woah, that's a lot of people for what people claim to be a tanked game.

The math is simple. Two platforms, game pass, multiple accounts per Xbox - all add up to a lot of players who launched the game and said "meh". MS loves those metrics like "players" or "skeletons killed" for a reason.

 

[Nikana]

To be fair, gamepass helps alot.

For me, it was good until you realise there wasn't much else to do. A kind of no man's sky situation. Hopefully alot more content comes at some point.

Does it really matter what "helped" it. Weither it was given away for free, sold as $60 title or part of game pass, point is people are playing it.

 

[Luffytubby]

Really wish someone would step up to the plate and deliver a true next generation MMO. It's fucking 2018 and WOW still hasn't been topped. That's just embarrassing for the entire species.

I'm really disappointed by how badly Blizzard dropped the ball on Overwatch and what it turned into. It should have been so much more.

It's crazy when you think about the fact that less time went by between Super Metroid and World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft and today. That much time has passed and no one has actually taken that genre forward. It's pathetic.

I think that, making a MMORPG is the hardest thing anyone can do, and for what it is worth, many games that came after WoW took the genre forward in different ways. WoW itself was built extremely close to the framework set by Everquest, and was actually a step back when it came to interaction, player run sandbox economies, crafting and manipulation of the world. Look at the feature list of a game that proceeded it like Ultima Online. A game with endlessly more ambition and impressive feature set.
The logistical challenge of MMOs combined with their GaaS business models make them such a risky proposition, and we know that from all the attempts at getting the commercial success of WoW. You don't know how players will use your world, so you're designing in blind. QA is difficult when the game depends on thousands of players being on for months on end.

Then you have technological limits. Network infrastructure still sets us back and makes things incredible difficult. I think games like Destiny, Star Citizen and PUBG shows what technical nightmares there are within the networking framework. Add a feature or a fix, and the game is ruined and turns into a laggy slideshow of shit. Build your game from the ground up with faulty tools (SWTOR, Destiny) and suffer the consequences.
What has happened is that the industry said no to MMORPGs, and turned towards GaaS. The consistent-long-term-always-new-persistent-character-growth aspect of MMOs as well as their business model of creating on going content has channeled itself into many other genres. So we don't need MMORPGs anymore.
What we need is multiplayer mobility and empowerment. If Elder Scrolls 6 has a build in GaaS model and dedicated servers for co-op and pvp multiplayer, and Neverwinter Nights like mod/dungeon master modules, that would be a massive step in the right direction.
What is more, WoW itself and other MMOs that were along its own design lines failed to capitalize on using the massively multiplayer aspect to its fullest. Other people in the open world would be a detriment to your ability to complete your solo-single-player-quest lines, and like a narrow stragith forward JRPG, the player was breadcrumbed from quest hub to quest hub, completely undermining the spirit of a open online massively multiplayer game that created meaningful gameplay with thousands of others.

 

[thelastword]

Woah, that's a lot of people for what people claim to be a tanked game.

These are persons who've played it since launch, on PC/XBOX with gamepass + sales. 5 million are not playing right now....

 

[VAL0R]

The game is gorgeous on X1X. One of the prettiest games I've ever played. And I love the art style that is so consistent and unique throughout the world. Looking forward to getting into Forsaken Sails expansion with my brother-in-law when I can get a day off. The game keeps getting better.

 

[MilkyJoe]

To be fair, gamepass helps alot.

The math is simple. Two platforms, game pass, multiple accounts per Xbox - all add up to a lot of players who launched the game and said "meh". MS loves those metrics like "players" or "skeletons killed" for a reason.

Yeah, i bet every xbox out there has at least 7 accounts attached to it.

 

[dirthead]

I think that, making a MMORPG is the hardest thing anyone can do, and for what it is worth, many games that came after WoW took the genre forward in different ways. WoW itself was built extremely close to the framework set by Everquest, and was actually a step back when it came to interaction, player run sandbox economies, crafting and manipulation of the world. Look at the feature list of a game that proceeded it like Ultima Online. A game with endlessly more ambition and impressive feature set.
The logistical challenge of MMOs combined with their GaaS business models make them such a risky proposition, and we know that from all the attempts at getting the commercial success of WoW. You don't know how players will use your world, so you're designing in blind. QA is difficult when the game depends on thousands of players being on for months on end.

Then you have technological limits. Network infrastructure still sets us back and makes things incredible difficult. I think games like Destiny, Star Citizen and PUBG shows what technical nightmares there are within the networking framework. Add a feature or a fix, and the game is ruined and turns into a laggy slideshow of shit. Build your game from the ground up with faulty tools (SWTOR, Destiny) and suffer the consequences.
What has happened is that the industry said no to MMORPGs, and turned towards GaaS. The consistent-long-term-always-new-persistent-character-growth aspect of MMOs as well as their business model of creating on going content has channeled itself into many other genres. So we don't need MMORPGs anymore.
What we need is multiplayer mobility and empowerment. If Elder Scrolls 6 has a build in GaaS model and dedicated servers for co-op and pvp multiplayer, and Neverwinter Nights like mod/dungeon master modules, that would be a massive step in the right direction.
What is more, WoW itself and other MMOs that were along its own design lines failed to capitalize on using the massively multiplayer aspect to its fullest. Other people in the open world would be a detriment to your ability to complete your solo-single-player-quest lines, and like a narrow stragith forward JRPG, the player was breadcrumbed from quest hub to quest hub, completely undermining the spirit of a open online massively multiplayer game that created meaningful gameplay with thousands of others.

The problem with Everquest is that it was an unpolished turd. WOW was incredibly polished, and what was there was mostly implemented really well, and that's why it did so well. Helped that it had one of the best game soundtracks ever made, great environments, and interesting Warcraft stories behind it.

It's interesting that you mention Elder Scrolls because I agree that there's something there. The Bethesda games are another case of "great idea, rough as fuck implementation" that could really use a WOW style polishing to get them to where they should be. That's kind of where I feel the next step is: the whole RTS style cooldown based combat system is a joke, and the tank-healer-dps mechanic is just completely worn out. I'd like to see something truly real time with actual combat mechanics instead of that crap. The problem, though, is that once you do that, grandmas can't play your game anymore, and now you've lost a huge chunk of the market WOW managed to attract just because the game was so braindead to play.

 

[VAL0R]

These are persons who've played it since launch, on PC/XBOX with gamepass + sales. 5 million are not playing right now....

Either way, 5 million individual users is an impressive milestone. If you feel discomfort, anxiety and/or emotional pain because of this, please seek immediate consolation in contemplating the large sales figures of a recent Sony title.

 

[joe_zazen]

What is more, WoW itself and other MMOs that were along its own design lines failed to capitalize on using the massively multiplayer aspect to its fullest. Other people in the open world would be a detriment to your ability to complete your solo-single-player-quest lines, and like a narrow stragith forward JRPG, the player was breadcrumbed from quest hub to quest hub, completely undermining the spirit of a open online massively multiplayer game that created meaningful gameplay with thousands of others.

When that has been done, you end up with a Darwinian sociopathic virtual society run by obsessive assholes(2nd life, EvE), so it isn't any big loss imo.

A game with systems that reward collaborative cooperation for building between thousands would be great, tho.

 

[LuvOfThaGame]

These are persons who've played it since launch, on PC/XBOX with gamepass + sales. 5 million are not playing right now....

You mean similar to the numbers released for GTS?

 

[CloudStrife_ca]

This is good for Sea Of Thieves, I absolutely love the feel to this game and look forward to checking out some much needed additional content.

 

[Mochilador]

Amazing! My favorite game of 2018.

 

[Nikana]

I have 77 acvounts and you better believe I logged in on EVERY...SINGLE...ONE...

 

[thelastword]

Either way, 5 million individual users is an impressive milestone. If you feel discomfort, anxiety and/or emotional pain because of this, please seek immediate consolation in contemplating the large sales figures of a recent Sony title.

Lets keep this on topic please.....What I said is factual. 5 million played SOT, great, but gamepass has been on sale @ 3 months for $9.99 and other sales before that, and it's on two platforms too, with shared accounts et al....

I have no problems with persons playing what they want to play, if you think this is causing me emotional distress, then perhaps you're 6 billboards of ebbing missouri, at this point......

 

[Kreydo]

Really wish someone would step up to the plate and deliver a true next generation MMO. It's fucking 2018 and WOW still hasn't been topped. That's just embarrassing for the entire species.

It's crazy when you think about the fact that less time went by between Super Metroid and World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft and today. That much time has passed and no one has actually taken that genre forward. It's pathetic.

MMORPG died because of publishers trying to do WoW clones.

Like I said in some other threads, WoW formatted the MMORPG to the themepark standard, the themepark standard is a very asceptised version of what was supposed to be MMORPG.
And with the Activision take over on Blizzard, WoW just became the play test for all micro-transaction and cashshop scam which are now the mandatory business model for MMORPG.
Because MMORPG are now made around a business model and not the opposite.

Few people realise how World Of Warcraft hurted the genre, mostly because the game was their first online experience with friend and they had fun, nobody can blame them.
Its not about 'hating' WoW to just be a random hater...Thing is MMORPG beside themepark form doesn't exist anymore, it's not like we have the choise, we just don't, something is lost.
Imagine if all the Racing car game became in less than a decade like Mario kart. only Mario Kart clones, this is what happened to MMORPG.

I really doubt MMORPG will ever rise again to his past glory and ambitious features, I think people today don't even bother to look for something that isn't over marketed.

Talking to actual MMO players about games with player driven economy, that make craft, ressources and so teamplay impactful on a server doesn't ring a bell! They just want to buy a skin in a cashshop.
They just don't understand or see the point, same when you try to talk with some 'veteran' players who don't understand the matter of a totally open and seamless world... Majority of them will tells you that WoW is Open world, because well there is a skybox above their head so it's "open world", while the game is fully instanced, with channels but players have absolutely no impact on their surrounding.

 

[MilkyJoe]

was playing last night,

Skelly ship rolled in,

suddenly i'm sinking, WTF I'm not hit yet...

Oh that's why...

 

[zeorhymer]

The game didn't grab me because of the game play loop. There is no sense of progression at all. You end up with the exact items you get as when you started. The "chase" is just for cosmetic things that doesn't make you feel any better than you did in the beginning. I'm glad 5 million people tried out the game, but I'm curious how many are still playing. Also fuck open world pvp.

 

[Zaffo]

5 million people who have access to the game through their subscription bothered to click the icon at least once, i don't want to be negative, but those kind of number are pretty easy to fuss up into something they are not.

 

[flashfire926]

5 million people who have access to the game through their subscription bothered to click the icon at least once, i don't want to be negative, but those kind of number are pretty easy to fuss up into something they are not.

Well. the average playtime is around 22 hours, so this wouldnt really make any sense.

But if you were correct, that means gamepass was a huge success for Microsoft. So either the game did well, or the subscription service.

 

[WaterAstro]

I'll just say "played" isn't "playing". Whether or not these 5 million people that played it that liked it or not should be the real question.

What PR would say that 5 million people played the game and almost all of them stopped playing?

 

[LuvOfThaGame]

Lets keep this on topic please.....What I said is factual. 5 million played SOT, great, but gamepass has been on sale @ 3 months for $9.99 and other sales before that, and it's on two platforms too, with shared accounts et al....

I have no problems with persons playing what they want to play, if you think this is causing me emotional distress, then perhaps you're 6 billboards of ebbing missouri, at this point......

You mean like GTS that's been on discount since shortly after launch and has a demo as well?

 

[oagboghi2]

Woah, that's a lot of people for what people claim to be a tanked game.

well when there is nothing else to play...

 

[Mochilador]

We need an OT for this game!

 

[mneuro]

I really need to try this game. I love rare and the game looks fun, but I've been so busy with other games and life

 

[Nikana]

I really need to try this game. I love rare and the game looks fun, but I've been so busy with other games and life

Easy. Quit your job.

 

[thelastword]

You mean like GTS that's been on discount since shortly after launch and has a demo as well?

I swear, I'm seeing Dejavu, didn't you just post this above......Anyway, I didn't have a choice in playing GTS with a free month of gamepass, so yes, you could actually play SOT for free too.......I don't see how that's the same.....If I can play SOT for free, Horizon 4, SOT, SOD for $9.99 across 3 months, you could be sure I'll boot them up, once at the very least...

 

[LuvOfThaGame]

I swear, I'm seeing Dejavu, didn't you just post this above......Anyway, I didn't have a choice in playing GTS with a free month of gamepass, so yes, you could actually play SOT for free too.......I don't see how that's the same.....If I can play SOT for free, Horizon 4, SOT, SOD for $9.99 across 3 months, you could be sure I'll boot them up, once at the very least...

No. That comment was about total players. This is about your comment on discount games and insinuating it's the only reason MS games sell. GTS has a demo out that progress transfers over since before launch of the game and has seem deep discounts as well. So, if you see this as being artificially inflated, then GTS is as well. It's called consistency. Give it a try.

 

[Havoc2049]

I play Sea of Thieves on an almost daily basis and I feel is has a fairly healthy and active community.

Has the lack of content problem been addressed? I feel like this is a game i personally wouldn't enjoy until its been built upon for a couple years.

I would say, yes. As there is the Bilge Rat bi-weekly events and they usually add something to the world that stays on a permanent basis. There is also the larger events and expansions like The Hungering Deep and The Cursed Sails which add to the gameplay and the world. Almost every single aspect of the game has been expanded or refined. Becoming a Pirate Legend will take hundreds of hours and is no easy feat and becoming a skilled Pirate at sailing, PVE and PVP requires many hours of hard work and dedication.

 

[LittleBusters]

90% on Game Pass but still impressive. This is what Microsoft was hoping for. They are 'priming the pump' for Game Pass by putting their AAA titles and it's working. 5 million 'State of Decay 2' will follow soon enough!

Also the constant updates for SoT will keep growing the community as well the transparency from Rare on what's coming. That keeps the excitement factor. There is no reason to think Rare isn't going to keep updating the game for the next several years. SoT in 2020 will be f-en amazing.

 

[Son_of_Zardoz]

No. That comment was about total players. This is about your comment on discount games and insinuating it's the only reason MS games sell. GTS has a demo out that progress transfers over since before launch of the game and has seem deep discounts as well. So, if you see this as being artificially inflated, then GTS is as well. It's called consistency. Give it a try.

Had to laugh because in a way he is being consistent by making sure he shows up in every MS thread and telling us why good news is bad.

That being said I finally got back to it a little bit this weekend and had a blast playing with my son. Nice to see more affordably priced stuff added to some of the vendors' inventories.

 

[Optimus Lime]

People really seem to have the hates out for this game. I have been playing it on the 1X. Great fun, even for antisocial me who is soloing most of the time. Sailling about, looking for treasure, fighting skeletons - it's great. And, it seems like they are pumping out content at a reasonable clip.

 

[-MD-]

I really need to try this game. I love rare and the game looks fun, but I've been so busy with other games and life

You're in luck because the game launched with next to no content and they've been releasing content updates since then so the longer you wait the more likely it is you'll enjoy the game.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

It's interesting that you mention Elder Scrolls because I agree that there's something there. The Bethesda games are another case of "great idea, rough as fuck implementation" that could really use a WOW style polishing to get them to where they should be.

Bethesda needs competent writers first and foremost

 

[LordPezix]

This game is literal magic.

The shit that can happen to you is just insane. I think that's what really draws people in is the vast valley of experiences that can happen to you.

 

[Louis Cyphre]

I'll just say "played" isn't "playing". Whether or not these 5 million people that played it that liked it or not should be the real question.

What PR would say that 5 million people played the game and almost all of them stopped playing?

Says the guy who assumed this game would get no post launch support and die a quick death. The fact is enough people are playing it to have Rare dedicate 3 different teams to create content for it in the future. You constantly shat all over the game before and it looks as though you want to continue doing it.

 

[Housh]

Yeah it's really fun. It's what sold me game pass and I don't even have XB1.

 

[mad597]

The math is simple. Two platforms, game pass, multiple accounts per Xbox - all add up to a lot of players who launched the game and said "meh". MS loves those metrics like "players" or "skeletons killed" for a reason.

Total bullshit response, Sony's not sending you a check no matter how much you troll

 

[kingwingin]

I have nothing against SoT but i hate when companies fudge the numbers to make it seem like its doing better than it actually is.

Like when halo 5 made 400 million but that included all halo 5 themes merchandise.

 

[Grinchy]

I have nothing against SoT but i hate when companies fudge the numbers to make it seem like its doing better than it actually is.

Like when halo 5 made 400 million but that included all halo 5 themes merchandise.

Yeah, whenever a PR statement purposely refuses to mention the number of sales, it's immediately obvious that they don't think the number is impressive. Monster Hunter didn't say, "We sold 8.3 million copies, but let's instead keep that number private and just boast about 2 billion monsters hunted or some useless metric."

I assume that Sea of Thieves has done well financially, but the actual sales are low enough that they go with their typical vague Microsoft sales speak instead.

 

[NahaNago]

congrats to Rare for hitting this milestone.

 

[Makariel]

was playing last night,

Skelly ship rolled in,

suddenly i'm sinking, WTF I'm not hit yet...

Oh that's why...

Yes, very important to grab a banana for self defense in such a situation. You must have been trained by an expert.