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Sea of Thieves over 1 million unique players under 48h and a developer launch update video.

WaterAstro

Member
No. Gaas means Game as a Service. It will get monthly free content plus it will have pets in form of microtransactions. Pets are optional cosmetic items you can buy from store. Player base is not going away as there are lot of people enjoying the game.

As far as lack of content is concerned then I think some people are assuming there's no end game content when clearly there's after you become Legendary pirate and unlock legendary voyages which are different in design compared to Faction quests.

Every Gaas game is repetitive in nature. Destiny, Division all had very little content at launch but now Division is packed with content, same will happen with SoT as Rare is fully committed to this game.
No, games as service aren't necessarily repetitive. Games as service is also too broad of a definition to really mean anything. Monster Hunter World is a "games as service" because it has cosmetic microtransaction, but it has no plans for paid content currently, and it has 300-400 hours of gameplay.

I also saw that it's going to take three months to bring out their first microtransactions. That's a long time.
 

Calibos

Member
Streamers are particularly down on it because they had access to the beta. The game didn't add enough for them.

If a casual does a quest once in a while, they won't burn out at all, I would imagine.


It is still in the top 15 on Twitch and top 4 on Mixer.

There is a double standard here in some ways. The Battle Royale games arguably have less content but are beloved by millions. Why is the criticism different for Sea of Thieves? Its an online only game. It has a heavy Multiplayer/Co-op focus. It also has some solo play options. It has a shit ton of cosmetics and cosmetic progression.

Also, if you look at games as a service like Destiny, The Division, RS:Siege etc...They are all almost completely overhauled from when they launched. New systems, modes, cosmetics, progression and other things have been added to those games...Granted, they all maybe had more solid content at launch, but the evidence is there for improvement on Sea of Thieves.


And also adding something as simple as a ship to ship deathmatch would give it "streaming" legs. I think criticism is valid in some areas for this game, but the ship isn't sunk...if Rare puts out a roadmap for content, and adds a couple interesting modes to the game in the short term, it could easily keep sailing. Puns intended.
 

WaterAstro

Member
It is still in the top 15 on Twitch and top 4 on Mixer.

There is a double standard here in some ways. The Battle Royale games arguably have less content but are beloved by millions. Why is the criticism different for Sea of Thieves? Its an online only game. It has a heavy Multiplayer/Co-op focus. It also has some solo play options. It has a shit ton of cosmetics and cosmetic progression.

Also, if you look at games as a service like Destiny, The Division, RS:Siege etc...They are all almost completely overhauled from when they launched. New systems, modes, cosmetics, progression and other things have been added to those games...Granted, they all maybe had more solid content at launch, but the evidence is there for improvement on Sea of Thieves.

And also adding something as simple as a ship to ship deathmatch would give it "streaming" legs. I think criticism is valid in some areas for this game, but the ship isn't sunk...if Rare puts out a roadmap for content, and adds a couple interesting modes to the game in the short term, it could easily keep sailing. Puns intended.
Things like "arguably have less content" and "maybe had more solid content at launch" is trying to make a facts into an opinion. PUBG and Fortnite have way more content, art assets, design, and balance, and because of that, it's far more replayable. Fortnite is updating the game on a weekly basis adding game changing items and weapons to keep it fresh. I can't speak for Division since I never followed it, but Destiny and Siege definitely had a solid launch with enough content to, at least, justify more than 20 hours of gameplay. There's a reason why people are still playing those games while Sea of Thieves is had quickly dropped its numbers in terms of viewership.
 
No, games as service aren't necessarily repetitive. Games as service is also too broad of a definition to really mean anything. Monster Hunter World is a "games as service" because it has cosmetic microtransaction, but it has no plans for paid content currently, and it has 300-400 hours of gameplay.

I also saw that it's going to take three months to bring out their first microtransactions. That's a long time.


SoT will have no paid DLC plus you can buy it for 10$ and try it unlike MHW.

Microtransactions are all cosmetic in SoT as well.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Game’s viewership has completely collapsed on twitch in less than a week. What a dud.
It really hasn't. Every game with even a tiny bit of hype starts out with high viewership and then dies down. Most of the time, those games die really far down the list. SoT is the 9th most watched game right this second after a week. That's a much better spot than I would have expected.

It currently has even more viewers than Overwatch, WoW, A Way Out, GTA5, Destiny 2, ect.
 

VertigoOA

Banned
Of course it has. Nice spin attempt. People were touting its twitch popularity during the beta and it nosedived in less than a week of its release.

It’s a dud and will be completely forgotten by next week.
 
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MilkyJoe

Member
Of course it has. Nice spin attempt. People were touting its twitch popularity during the beta and it nosedived in less than a week of its release.

It’s a dud and will be completely forgotten by next week.

Give it a rest sausage, we know you want it to fail, but no one cares.


On topic, downloaded the patch on X. Screen tearing has gone, try as I might I can't get it to tear.

Also from people wondering, saw a few question it, a storm does smash your boat up, just did a test there too.
 

Calibos

Member
It's just a PR smokescreen to try and sucker consumers to believing the game is doing better than it is. The games that are actually doing well don't need to resort to this kind of marketing.

Tinfoil hat.

If there's a Sea of Thieves OT, I won't be in that since OT's are for people playing or interested in playing the game.

"Expensive" is not based on how much content is in the game. It's based on how many people were working on it and how long they worked on it. Take Rare's team amount, and you can easily make a ballpark guess multiplied by the number of years it took to finish the game.

If not interested, why are you spending so much time smashing against people for liking it?

Ballpark assumption.


Is Gaas short for gamepass? And you mentioned microtransaction, which I don't think it has or will have any. I think microtransaction will be a mistake because of the lack of content. People will shred the game apart if they add microtransactions right now.

Feely opinion followed by an assumption.

Streamers are particularly down on it because they had access to the beta. The game didn't add enough for them.

If a casual does a quest once in a while, they won't burn out at all, I would imagine.

Speaking for another group.

Imagining.

Things like "arguably have less content" and "maybe had more solid content at launch" is trying to make a facts into an opinion. PUBG and Fortnite have way more content, art assets, design, and balance, and because of that, it's far more replayable. Fortnite is updating the game on a weekly basis adding game changing items and weapons to keep it fresh. I can't speak for Division since I never followed it, but Destiny and Siege definitely had a solid launch with enough content to, at least, justify more than 20 hours of gameplay. There's a reason why people are still playing those games while Sea of Thieves is had quickly dropped its numbers in terms of viewership.

PubG and Fortnite and Siege and Destiny all had a lack of content when they launched. As I said, MAYBE not to the extent of Sea of Thieves. I said that because saying something has a "lack of content" is as subjective as it gets. Lack of content for who? Everyone? The majority? The minority? 12 year olds? 28 year olds? Women? Men? Making facts into an opinion isn't what I was doing at all.


We are all just arguing, speculating and theorizing here. Acting like you are somehow just an all seeing, factual robot that never assumes, imagines, speaks for another group or ballparks is just plane strange.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
For those saying does Gamepass subscription count as a sale. The clear answer is no. It's also important to note that it's not about sales anymore with Microsoft. They are going for the Netflix business model. So that means how many subscribers can Game Pass sustain over time. They need to put games in there to do that, just like Netflix had to do with movies and eventually they're own TV Shows.

Some people can't seem to wrap their heads around this concept, which is understandable for a few reasons. How do you gauge Sea of Thieves success compared to, for example, God of War's success. The reality is...you really can't. It's apples and oranges at this point from a sheer business perspective. God of War has an immediately sales reflection while Sea of Thieves is a tool to sell Game Pass. Even if you were to look at concurrent players...it's still apples and oranges because of the types of games they are. Shared Open World Co-Op Multiplayer, vs. Branching linear single player game.

So people who are wondering "I wonder how many people just got it through game pass" as if to say that's why there's so many concurrent players. UH...DUUUUUUHH, that's the concept. It's what its designed for. You think Fortnite BR would be as popular as a $30 to $60 game? Not a chance in hell.

It's smart business...bottom line.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Of course it has. Nice spin attempt. People were touting its twitch popularity during the beta and it nosedived in less than a week of its release.

It’s a dud and will be completely forgotten by next week.
I couldn't possibly care enough to spin anything. I just don't have any personal reason to defend or shit on this game. I'm playing it for free and might be close to being done with it. I am just pointing out obvious truths. Check it out now:



As you can see, it's still the 7th most watched game. And, as you can see, Far Cry 5 has 235,000 viewers. That number will plummet like an anchor soon enough too, because that is the path that 99% of all games have on Twitch. They have lots of viewers when new, then they drop quickly down the list. For SoT to still be in the top 10 is kinda surprising to me, that's all. When it drops further down, I couldn't care less. There's no spin.
 

WaterAstro

Member
Tinfoil hat.



If not interested, why are you spending so much time smashing against people for liking it?

Ballpark assumption.




Feely opinion followed by an assumption.



Speaking for another group.

Imagining.



PubG and Fortnite and Siege and Destiny all had a lack of content when they launched. As I said, MAYBE not to the extent of Sea of Thieves. I said that because saying something has a "lack of content" is as subjective as it gets. Lack of content for who? Everyone? The majority? The minority? 12 year olds? 28 year olds? Women? Men? Making facts into an opinion isn't what I was doing at all.


We are all just arguing, speculating and theorizing here. Acting like you are somehow just an all seeing, factual robot that never assumes, imagines, speaks for another group or ballparks is just plane strange.
Wow, lol, that's so try hard. You even TRIED to use a complete factual statement against me? If a company has 200 employees, the average salary for the company is $60k, and the game takes 3 years to make, you will get the minimum amount required to develop the game excluding studio costs, marketing, publishing, server maintenence. I said ballpark because I don't know how many employees there are or how much they get paid. It's just simple math.

I said casuals won't burn out on Sea of Thieves... It's one of the good things I said about the game. Are you saying they will burn out playing the game casually? I don't get it. And yes, streamers are burning out on it and posted proof.

If you don't like me or youtubers or reviewers giving out warnings to people about the lack of content, which is factual, then prove us wrong. Show us the content that we're missing.
 
Wow, lol, that's so try hard. You even TRIED to use a complete factual statement against me? If a company has 200 employees, the average salary for the company is $60k, and the game takes 3 years to make, you will get the minimum amount required to develop the game excluding studio costs, marketing, publishing, server maintenence. I said ballpark because I don't know how many employees there are or how much they get paid. It's just simple math.

I said casuals won't burn out on Sea of Thieves... It's one of the good things I said about the game. Are you saying they will burn out playing the game casually? I don't get it. And yes, streamers are burning out on it and posted proof.

If you don't like me or youtubers or reviewers giving out warnings to people about the lack of content, which is factual, then prove us wrong. Show us the content that we're missing.

Are you a streamer showing the game? A Youtuber showing the game? Did you even play the game? I guess the question many of us have is why are you so invested in this game when it appears you haven't actually made an investment to begin with? I really don't get some people, it's like they have nothing better to do.
 
Of course it has. Nice spin attempt. People were touting its twitch popularity during the beta and it nosedived in less than a week of its release.

It’s a dud and will be completely forgotten by next week.

So we judge success based on Twitch viewership? I doubt GOW will get any Twitch viewership compared to other games. Will you call that dud as well?

If GOW failed to beat SoT viewership on Twitch then I will call SoT bigger success than GOW coz Twitch is main criteria to judge the success of the game on Gaf, right?


How many Twitch viewership UC4, HZD nd all got? Let me check zero. So both are failure?
 
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If you don't like me or youtubers or reviewers giving out warnings to people about the lack of content, which is factual, then prove us wrong. Show us the content that we're missing.

Play the game and check for yourself. YT opinions are individual opinion just like all reviews. Jim Sterling calls Zelda bad game but no take it seriously but if people call SoT bad then you all take very seriously.
 

WaterAstro

Member
Are you a streamer showing the game? A Youtuber showing the game? Did you even play the game? I guess the question many of us have is why are you so invested in this game when it appears you haven't actually made an investment to begin with? I really don't get some people, it's like they have nothing better to do.
Play the game and check for yourself. YT opinions are individual opinion just like all reviews. Jim Sterling calls Zelda bad game but no take it seriously but if people call SoT bad then you all take very seriously.
Ah, the classic "You can't form an opinion if you haven't played it!" Sorry guys, but I don't want to get ripped off, and neither does anyone else. It's why reviews exists: to tell people what's in the game and whether it's worth it for them or not.
 
Had an absolute blast playing this game last night with my friends. We made zero progress but I'll be damned if it wasn't some of the most fun I've had in an MP game in some time. Three sloops and a galleon fighting over a skull fort, eventually leading to a chase through a storm, only for the galleon to get caught by a Kraken while the sloops pelted it from afar.

These are the moments Rare was betting on to prop up their game. But they're so far and few between that you have to wonder why Rare didn't populate the world with more to do in the downtime. Sigh. So much wasted potential.

Ah, the classic "You can't form an opinion if you haven't played it!" Sorry guys, but I don't want to get ripped off, and neither does anyone else. It's why reviews exists: to tell people what's in the game and whether it's worth it for them or not.
Reviews never tell the whole story, and if you're only following reviews (or streamers lol) then you're missing out on a LOT of good games out there.
 

Calibos

Member
Glad to see that this game is still going strong on twitch and is still being talked about around my work and friends daily. Fun water cooler pirate stories! Seems like the studio heads and community manager are listening to feedback and responding quickly as they always have too. Maybe we will start seeing content within the month?





Wow, lol, that's so try hard. You even TRIED to use a complete factual statement against me? If a company has 200 employees, the average salary for the company is $60k, and the game takes 3 years to make, you will get the minimum amount required to develop the game excluding studio costs, marketing, publishing, server maintenence. I said ballpark because I don't know how many employees there are or how much they get paid. It's just simple math.

I said casuals won't burn out on Sea of Thieves... It's one of the good things I said about the game. Are you saying they will burn out playing the game casually? I don't get it. And yes, streamers are burning out on it and posted proof.

If you don't like me or youtubers or reviewers giving out warnings to people about the lack of content, which is factual, then prove us wrong. Show us the content that we're missing.


Who is the "TryHard" here?

Thanks sooo much for the warnings youtube, twitch and WaterAstro! Sadly, I went against your advice and the trending opinions and actually played the game for myself and liked it a whole lot. Hopefully, they add more content with it being an "Ongoing, Evolving Service" style game and all.

I am sorry that it hurts you so much that not everyone listens to you. In the future, I will take your opinions with an open heart and less salt. Who knows, maybe I will actually hate a game as well...I will try soooooo hard.
 

demigod

Member
Who is the "TryHard" here?

Thanks sooo much for the warnings youtube, twitch and WaterAstro! Sadly, I went against your advice and the trending opinions and actually played the game for myself and liked it a whole lot. Hopefully, they add more content with it being an "Ongoing, Evolving Service" style game and all.

I am sorry that it hurts you so much that not everyone listens to you. In the future, I will take your opinions with an open heart and less salt. Who knows, maybe I will actually hate a game as well...I will try soooooo hard.

Awesome that you like the game, now make sure you buy the game!
 

Calibos

Member
Seriously dude that’s only one week of sales in UK. And I read that it sold on par with QB first week which was around 27k. This week Farcry will shit all over it. Lets wait and see before calling it a hit.

Can we call it a "hit" now? I don't know what the future holds for content additions, but 2 million, not including gamepass, in a week is pretty good right?


Awesome that you like the game, now make sure you buy the game!


I currently have it through Gamepass.
 
Ah, the classic "You can't form an opinion if you haven't played it!" Sorry guys, but I don't want to get ripped off, and neither does anyone else. It's why reviews exists: to tell people what's in the game and whether it's worth it for them or not.

So how did you review the game? It's kind of hard to take your review seriously if you haven't actually played it. All you're doing is taking snippets from other sites and other people's feedback, then repeating it endlessly topic to topic.

Looks like others are enjoying it above and recent tweets suggests it's doing alright. Keep fighting the good fight.
 
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demigod

Member
Can we call it a "hit" now? I don't know what the future holds for content additions, but 2 million, not including gamepass, in a week is pretty good right? I currently have it through Gamepass.

Like I said, you guys are looking at headlines or whatever that makes Sea of Thieves look good without actually reading the article. The "not including gamepass" is referring to the Fastest New IP this generation (which seems like he's referring to MS new IP which is not a lot). This game is not going to hit 2mil anytime soon.
 

Calibos

Member
Like I said, you guys are looking at headlines or whatever that makes Sea of Thieves look good without actually reading the article. The "not including gamepass" is referring to the Fastest New IP this generation (which seems like he's referring to MS new IP which is not a lot). This game is not going to hit 2mil anytime soon.

I did read the article. I didn't say sales. I said 2 million in a week. MS with Game Pass doesn't care about sales, just subs which is why I am not talking sales.

2 MILLION players the first week is outstanding. It makes Sea of Thieves look very good yes. Everyone I play PubG with and everyone at work here is still talking about how much fun it is to jump in and romp around the ocean looking for treasure and trouble. It's a hit man...not so much critically, but in the populace outside of the Gaf bubble...

It could have longevity issues, but for now, people are playing it....a lot.
 

demigod

Member
I did read the article. I didn't say sales. I said 2 million in a week. MS with Game Pass doesn't care about sales, just subs which is why I am not talking sales.

2 MILLION players the first week is outstanding. It makes Sea of Thieves look very good yes. Everyone I play PubG with and everyone at work here is still talking about how much fun it is to jump in and romp around the ocean looking for treasure and trouble. It's a hit man...not so much critically, but in the populace outside of the Gaf bubble...

It could have longevity issues, but for now, people are playing it....a lot.

If you didn't say sales, why did you quote the sales and then added your 2mil? If its a hit, you'd be buying the game, not gamepassing it. I don't think some of you understand what GAaS is.
 

ph33rknot

Banned
No, games as service aren't necessarily repetitive. Games as service is also too broad of a definition to really mean anything. Monster Hunter World is a "games as service" because it has cosmetic microtransaction, but it has no plans for paid content currently, and it has 300-400 hours of gameplay.

I also saw that it's going to take three months to bring out their first microtransactions. That's a long time.
mh is a grinde too
 

-MD-

Member
It outsold the likes of Recore, Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break? Whoa, seriously impressive.
 

demigod

Member
It outsold the likes of Recore, Sunset Overdrive and Quantum Break? Whoa, seriously impressive.

It's pretty disingenuous of them calling it the fastest selling new IP of the generation and not clarifying that they meant on xbox. I don't believe for a second that it outsold Gears 4 on Windows 10 either.
 
I too failed to heed the warnings of how it is such a bad game and have been loving it so far, especially playing with my sons. Excited to see what they add.
 
Of course it has. Nice spin attempt. People were touting its twitch popularity during the beta and it nosedived in less than a week of its release.

It’s a dud and will be completely forgotten by next week.

Games will always fluctuate depending on who's streaming them. For example, Gothalion is a fairly large streamer on Twitch and when he plays SOT he'll get anywhere from 10-15K viewers if not more. Summit1g will easily add 60k viewers. Right now Fortnite has 150K viewers but the top 5 viewers make up 1/3 of the current viewership.
 

WaterAstro

Member
mh is a grinde too
lol It's not. MHW keeps fresh for about 50-60 hours where you beat the final boss.
Games will always fluctuate depending on who's streaming them. For example, Gothalion is a fairly large streamer on Twitch and when he plays SOT he'll get anywhere from 10-15K viewers if not more. Summit1g will easily add 60k viewers. Right now Fortnite has 150K viewers but the top 5 viewers make up 1/3 of the current viewership.
I saw Summit play it last night and he was only getting 20k, which is strange.
 

AZCards

Member
I'd be interested to see what SoT is like after another week when the game pass trials run out for people. Really don't see this staying afloat for very long. Rare will have to add more content sooner rather than later.

Everyone who is saying they are enjoying it so far, I would hope so. You should be able to enjoy a game up to this point. We'll see in a month how you're all doing.
 

WaterAstro

Member
I'd be interested to see what SoT is like after another week when the game pass trials run out for people. Really don't see this staying afloat for very long. Rare will have to add more content sooner rather than later.

Everyone who is saying they are enjoying it so far, I would hope so. You should be able to enjoy a game up to this point. We'll see in a month how you're all doing.
Well, they said content will come 3 months after. They seriously should push that up sooner because they don't want to completely drop off the map. Players move from one game to another, and they don't look back. That's why the most successful games, like League of Legends and Fortnite, update really often in order to maintain the interest.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
I don't believe for a second that it outsold Gears 4 on Windows 10 either.

New IP. Don't understand what's hard to understand in their quote. Having a blast with this personally a lot of people I know are sales back that.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Well, MS has one thing going for it: because of this game I used my Game Pass trial to try out this game and while I dropped off it unbelievably quickly, I'm going to hold on to Game Pass and start paying for it. I've been trying out a whole bunch of different games that I never would have dropped a dime on. I'm playing and having a blast with Toy Soldiers and Toy Soldiers: Cold War right now. I'll come back to Sea of Thieves in about 6 months or so and see where they're at.
 

MilkyJoe

Member
Ah, the classic "You can't form an opinion if you haven't played it!" Sorry guys, but I don't want to get ripped off, and neither does anyone else. It's why reviews exists: to tell people what's in the game and whether it's worth it for them or not.

But a review is someone else's opinion. And a game like this is a classic marmite case. There are reviews of 9 and reviews of 4. How do you know where you are on the spectrum until you play it? You are dismissing the positive reviews and siding with the negative. That's no way to go through life, thinking for yourself is very liberating.
 
Ah, the classic "You can't form an opinion if you haven't played it!" Sorry guys, but I don't want to get ripped off, and neither does anyone else. It's why reviews exists: to tell people what's in the game and whether it's worth it for them or not.
Game Pass says hi. Activate trial and then cancel it.
 

WaterAstro

Member
But a review is someone else's opinion. And a game like this is a classic marmite case. There are reviews of 9 and reviews of 4. How do you know where you are on the spectrum until you play it? You are dismissing the positive reviews and siding with the negative. That's no way to go through life, thinking for yourself is very liberating.
You mean there ONE review of 9. lol

People will form their own opinions reading reviews and watching playthrough. Are you seriously suggesting that no one should take Amazon product reviews seriously before buying something, or that people should ignore Yelp and other restaurant reviews to only find out the restaurant is garbage? Reviews matter, and not just the reviews of journalists, but of youtubers and streamers. I personally rely on streamers because their entire playthrough experience is available unlike some edited youtube video or a bunch of words from a journalist.

If you spend your life "thinking for yourself" when it comes to buying products, you'll either be poor or frustrated from having to use the return policy all the time.
Game Pass says hi. Activate trial and then cancel it.
$10 is still $10. It makes the pill easier to swallow, but it still leaves a hole in the pocket.
 
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