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[Henry Panic]

I’ve been online long enough to know that sometimes you see a take so bad that you know responding earnestly is a waste of everyone’s time. History isn’t written by you and your take is far from accurate, and I accept there isn’t anything I can say that will change your mind. Some people just want to go against the grain with their takes and it is what it is.

There isn't any take outside your imagination.

Your first post earlier was whining about downplaying GEs success and people should post their age first, ironically.

But before that post there wasn't one comment downplaying the success of GE. You made it up.

You manufactured a fake argument so you could get some people to give you props calling out the invisible man.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

There isn't any take outside your imagination.

Your first post earlier was whining about downplaying GEs success and people should post their age first, ironically.

But before that post there wasn't one comment downplaying the success of GE. You made it up.

You manufactured a fake argument so you could get some people to give you props calling out the invisible man.

The sixth post ITT:

It makes you look back and realize many classic Rare games were seen as bigger than they were.

Goldeneye and Kinect Sports were both less successful than this game. Think about that.

8m copies sold on a platform of 32m. Would have been the 5th best selling PSX game on a platform that sold 102m.

You tried to downplay it and you’re upset I made reference to that fact, so you’re trying to call me out or whatever. You had a shitty take which is fine but now you’re defending it and trying to make this into some big deal. Try and be more self aware.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Just finished the ViDoc.

We've got a compass but not a map.
Everyone knows pirates and the kind of mischief pirates get up to.
Like going to the pub, you have that kind of fun joking around.
Then heading to a theme park drunk together with your mates.
Yeah, and it wouldn't affect your ability to play the game, it would probably enhance it.

Oh yes, that is very much Sea of Thieves and its wonkiness we love.

"I'm going with rage for killing my mate with a chicken."
-Aaron Greenbeard

Also how did that live stream dev not end up with a pirate name of "Monkey Business"?

Much love for the stealth drop of Pirates of the Caribbean crossover including Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones. A beautiful father, son and family story out of this video. As I have grown from a child loving games decades ago to now a father of a gaming family this is gaming to me. Sharing the fun, failures and successes while having something to step into together outside of our daily lives. You gorgeous game studio Rare, cheers to your next SoT update and game IPs coming. I and my family will be waiting.

There is a real concept conveyed towards the end of the ViDoc around meeting fans at events and not just online. Things like inviting them to the studio, having them in the audience, mixing it up at E3/shows and more need to be cared for and held up high without the corporate profit by the numbers approach. Watching this ViDoc it is very prevalent how intrinsically necessary developers are with their audiences and how games are shapeshifted during prototyping and development, pre and post launch.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Ironically, anyone that's actually old knows GE didn't really bring anything to the table to fps.

It was The console FPS on a system with game droughts and was arguably the biggest release on the console when it came out, with few other options.

But craziest part about this post was no one was originally downplaying it's success, you just kind of invented it until now.

You're trying to talk about sales numbers and completely leaving out the old school fact of going to a friends house to play games like Goldeneye or Perfect Dark or Diddy Kong Racing. The Rare/Goldeneye zeitgeist experience that rivals anything of today's biggest hits is completely over your head because you're too busy acting like a corporate bean counter instead of being a gamer.

 

[daTRUballin]

You're trying to talk about sales numbers and completely leaving out the old school fact of going to a friends house to play games like Goldeneye or Perfect Dark or Diddy Kong Racing. The Rare/Goldeneye zeitgeist experience that rivals anything of today's biggest hits is completely over your head because you're too busy acting like a corporate bean counter instead of being a gamer.

I think a lot of people tend to forget that sales numbers don't always equal the exact number of people that have played a game because not everyone that has played it owns a copy themselves. I would imagine that the actual number of players would typically be bigger than the number of copies it sold.

Goldeneye "only sold 8 million", but think about the amount of people that played it in parties, households, college dorms, workplaces, etc. etc. Thinking about it this way makes Goldeneye's success even more extraordinary for a game from the 90's.

 

[Henry Panic]

The sixth post ITT:

8m copies sold on a platform of 32m. Would have been the 5th best selling PSX game on a platform that sold 102m.

You tried to downplay it and you’re upset I made reference to that fact, so you’re trying to call me out or whatever. You had a shitty take which is fine but now you’re defending it and trying to make this into some big deal. Try and be more self aware.

There's no downplaying GEs success in that post.

It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that if this thread is about Sea of Thieves, the most successful rare game, that the other games were less successful by default.

In fact the post you didn't read right, was actually touting both GE and Kinect Sports as major sellers, making the point SoT being more successful, was a big deal.

There was no downplaying at all, you had a mental lapse and literally imagined something that never happened.

You made up a post so people could give you kudos for calling out an imaginary user.

Wow!

Lol the psx comparison, was never part of this thread until you brought it up too! Out of thin air! All imaginary to increase your like count!

Either that are you have some pretty terrifying reading comprehension.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

There's no downplaying GEs success in that post.

It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that if this thread is about Sea of Thieves, the most successful rare game, that the other games were less successful by default.

In fact the post you didn't read right, was actually touting both GE and Kinect Sports as major sellers, making the point SoT being more successful, was a big deal.

There was no downplaying at all, you had a mental lapse and literally imagined something that never happened.

You made up a post so people could give you kudos for calling out an imaginary user.

Wow!

Lol the psx comparison, was never part of this thread until you brought it up too! Out of thin air! All imaginary to increase your like count!

Either that are you have some pretty terrifying reading comprehension.

Ok

 

[Henry Panic]

Ok

Good, please read carefully next time.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Good, please read carefully next time.

Nah

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

He is talking about player skill and knowledge of the game, which you well know. Why is it you always do this ignorant dance whenever it comes to Microsoft products?

Well it's probably because skill level is never equal. Even with brand new players in brand new games some are always better at a genre. So it's kind of a silly argument. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to consider skill level in a "even playing field" discussion because the nature of skill level means there is never a level playing field. In any game.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

I think a lot of people tend to forget that sales numbers don't always equal the exact number of people that have played a game because not everyone that has played it owns a copy themselves. I would imagine that the actual number of players would typically be bigger than the number of copies it sold.

Goldeneye "only sold 8 million", but think about the amount of people that played it in parties, households, college dorms, workplaces, etc. etc. Thinking about it this way makes Goldeneye's success even more extraordinary for a game from the 90's.

1/4th of every N64 owner purchased a new copy of the game. That’s a wild stat.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Well it's probably because skill level is never equal. Even with brand new players in brand new games some are always better at a genre. So it's kind of a silly argument. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to consider skill level in a "even playing field" discussion because the nature of skill level means there is never a level playing field. In any game.

The argument wasnt' that there is ever an even playing field - just that at launch there was a more even playing field than there is today. No need to create strawman arguments.

 

[Havoc2049]

That seems reasonable.

I'm more curious about the following statement..."Sea of Thieves launched barebones/poorly. They gave it a lot of updates and now it's good."

I'm always puzzled because the concurrent players numbers on Steam (+XBL list) never really improved.

Maybe fanboy talk? Personally, I though the Sea of Thieves launch was solid and there was plenty to do. It literally took hundreds of hours to level the three trading factions up in order to become a Pirate Legend and gain acess to Pirate Legend end game Athena activities. Each faction had several mission types, there were numerous enemy types and several random world events, along with the random PVP. Plus the gameplay was solid and and the community seemed to love the game.

As for the daily concurrent numbers never increasing, I think it has to do with the the gameplay loop. Many people don't realize that SoT is a major time sink and requires a significant commitment to reach end game activities. Plus the whole pirate activity of stealing loot really pisses off new players sometimes. A crew can spend hours ammasing a bunch of loot, only to loose it to another pirate. Every time my crew and I sink a ship/crew and steel loot of obvious new players we always joke about how they won't play SoT again. It is both a strength and weakness of the game. I even used to get pissed, but now I embrace the Pirate looting aspect of the game. You win some you loose some and the challenge of protecting your loot or stealing loot is a blast.

 

[nemiroff]

SoT is the absolute best game I don't play, ironically because of the PvP.. I applaud the PvE only content though, wish there was much more of it.

 

[Ozriel]

I'm always puzzled because the concurrent players numbers on Steam (+XBL list) never really improved.

Sea of Thieves only launched on Steam in 2020. By that time, most of the content issues had already been resolved and the game was getting content at a steady clip.

 

[Banjo64]

I love how open Rare are. Not seen this yet, but all of the little clips they included in Rare Replay about each game were fantastic.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

was thinking about getting this on steam deck during the sales.

 

[deriks]

This is a great comeback. Most for all the haters

Game was launched without a big promise. It was becoming bigger and bigger with not a lot of fuzz, but getting more and more people by the day. It is a very rich game nowadays, kinda with a arcade rushed style, and everyone is ok with this

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

The argument wasnt' that there is ever an even playing field - just that at launch there was a more even playing field than there is today. No need to create strawman arguments.

So you're saying there's no need to do what you were doing. Got it.

 

[Dr. Claus]

So you're saying there's no need to do what you were doing. Got it.

This makes zero logical sense. Try again, kiddo.

 

[Stuart360]

I know he's banned now but the guy talking about Rare in the N64 days is not being very fair. Gaming was a lot smaller back then, and game budgets were tiny compared to today.
A game selling 1mil back then was often a big success financially.

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

This makes zero logical sense. Try again, kiddo.

Player skill and knowledge of the game has NOTHING to do with an even playing field, as people who have played the game an equal amount of hours can have wildly different skill levels and knowledge of the game. That has nothing to do with the point that was being made about all ships being equal and no player having an advantage outside of the obvious skill level advantages players have in every game. Skill level and time invested doesn't even need to be mentioned in the discussion because it's fucking obvious no two players will have the same time invested and skill level so your point doesn't refute or even relate to the discussion. Hence your strawman. But sure I'm the one making the strawman argument



Imagine thinking it's not an even playing field because someone has 1% more playtime than you. But I guess that's the extent at which you can understand this argument.

 

[Lasha]

Bullshit

Multiplayer games are not intrinsically a level playing field as more time goes on, unless you're constantly cycling new players.

Especially for a game that is 5+ years old, it's not going to be new people who gave it those legs, but those who've stuck with it. Look at every other multiplayer game that has stuck around for proof of that.

You're confusing a level playing field with a chance to win. If I sit across from Magnus Carlson for a game of chess the playing field is even but my chances of winning are low. SoT offers no persistence that affords an advantage to a player with more time in game. You can jump in day one and wreck pirate legends if you have skill. You can take a break and come back without behing behind. It's as even a playing field as one can find.

 

[Moses85]

I remember there was some speculation after Lionhead closed down that Rare might take over the Fable franchise, but this was before Playground's game was announced of course.

It depends how you look at it.

Back in the day, it was absolutely insane that a licensed James Bond game that came out 2 years after the movie it was based on became the 3rd highest selling N64 game with 8 million copies sold. Goldeneye was a cultural phenomenon when it came out. It even outsold Ocarina of Time!

Donkey Kong Country sold more than Goldeneye with over 9 million copies and was the second highest selling game on the SNES after Mario World.

Both DKC2 and DK64 sold over 5 million and Diddy Kong Racing came pretty close to that number as well. In fact, DKR was the fastest selling game of all time at release and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

When you look at these numbers by themselves, they may not seem that large or impressive, but they sold incredibly well for the time period and consoles they came out on. You say Banjo only sold 3 million, but it was still in the N64's top 10 selling games list.

Rare's games were really big at the time. There's a reason they have the legacy they have.

 

[daTRUballin]

I know he's banned now but the guy talking about Rare in the N64 days is not being very fair. Gaming was a lot smaller back then, and game budgets were tiny compared to today.
A game selling 1mil back then was often a big success financially.

Rare released 11 games for the N64 and if I'm not mistaken, only 4 of them sold less than a million (Killer Instinct Gold, Blast Corps, Mickey's Speedway USA, Conker's Bad Fur Day). I remember reading somewhere that there's a possibility that Conker may have eventually reached a million as well.

That's pretty crazy to think about.

 

[KungFucius]

Phenomenal game. Anyone who tries to downplay its success is a troll or just a fucking console warfare idiot.

Game started out slow, but it's amazing now. Wish I had time to play it like before :/

Really? I am trying to start out and the game is kind of annoying. Before I could even find the first thing they sent me to do after the intro, I found how to spend real money. I guess if you don't like that shit, then the game will suck? Or does it get better? Also the fucking thing crashed my PC hard until I reset all data on the MS store and the game. How the fuck does a 5 year old game depend so much on something in the store settings that it crashes a decent PC. It's basically nuking my PC because it doesn't see the best way to suck money from me.

I also find the overall UI to be sucky. You need to press X to climb a ladder and it is finnicky to get the prompt. You have to carry treasures and drop them, but you don't have to drop your shovel, bucket, sword, etc. This makes me think the game will be very chorelike. Carry this chest from island to ship. Go back to island, everything respawned. Kill it to pick up the treasure that actually works as a weapon but you can't put in inventory.

 

[UnravelKatharsis]

Really? I am trying to start out and the game is kind of annoying. Before I could even find the first thing they sent me to do after the intro, I found how to spend real money. I guess if you don't like that shit, then the game will suck? Or does it get better? Also the fucking thing crashed my PC hard until I reset all data on the MS store and the game. How the fuck does a 5 year old game depend so much on something in the store settings that it crashes a decent PC. It's basically nuking my PC because it doesn't see the best way to suck money from me.

I also find the overall UI to be sucky. You need to press X to climb a ladder and it is finnicky to get the prompt. You have to carry treasures and drop them, but you don't have to drop your shovel, bucket, sword, etc. This makes me think the game will be very chorelike. Carry this chest from island to ship. Go back to island, everything respawned. Kill it to pick up the treasure that actually works as a weapon but you can't put in inventory.

All purchases are cosmetic. I have at least a thousand hours in game and have never spent a dollar. Maybe the games just not for you.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Tried to get into this, love the aesthetic, but it bores me to tears and I don’t understand the appeal

Really wish Rare would go back to their roots

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Tried to get into this, love the aesthetic, but it bores me to tears and I don’t understand the appeal

Really wish Rare would go back to their roots

The game is meant to be played with friends and it makes the experience so much better. SoT solo is fun for about 30 mins, with friends that all buy in its some of the most fun moment-to-moment gameplay on the market. There is a real sense of pressure when you are sailing around with a ship full of loot, from other players, sea monsters, storms, etc.

When you have a ship full of loot, like 3-4 hours worth, and enemy player ships start to chase you down and a battle ensues, you see a storm and decide to sail into it for protection. Finally make it to port and everyone is laughing as you turn your haul in. Doesn't get any better than that.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The game is meant to be played with friends and it makes the experience so much better. SoT solo is fun for about 30 mins, with friends that all buy in its some of the most fun moment-to-moment gameplay on the market. There is a real sense of pressure when you are sailing around with a ship full of loot, from other players, sea monsters, storms, etc.

Yeah my problem is I’m not really a co-op gamer. I wish this game had a better SP implementation with more traditional mechanics. What I played seemed like doing house chores.

 

[onQ123]

I though Donkey Kong Kountry sold like 10 million but Nintendo probably got most of that money

 

[Dr. Claus]

Player skill and knowledge of the game has NOTHING to do with an even playing field, as people who have played the game an equal amount of hours can have wildly different skill levels and knowledge of the game. That has nothing to do with the point that was being made about all ships being equal and no player having an advantage outside of the obvious skill level advantages players have in every game. Skill level and time invested doesn't even need to be mentioned in the discussion because it's fucking obvious no two players will have the same time invested and skill level so your point doesn't refute or even relate to the discussion. Hence your strawman. But sure I'm the one making the strawman argument



Imagine thinking it's not an even playing field because someone has 1% more playtime than you. But I guess that's the extent at which you can understand this argument.

The ignorance and projection on display would be inspiring if it wasn't so sad. Try again, kiddo.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Rare was definitely not that big on the N64 as they seemed, it's just everything else on the system that wasn't Nintendo (and even they had flops) didn't do near as well, and if you were to remove Rare from the N64, that would pretty much remove that NA base that held up the N64. Games like Goldeneye and Banjo basically saved the system when there was nothing to play or if people were burned by games like Bomber Man 64. It's why N64 was the console with their biggest collective successes.

It still is because they've only had one hit game the last two gens.

Sea of Thieves is their biggest success as an individual game supposedly, but it does mean we haven't seen anything from them in 5 years. Everwild was revealed but when the trailer came out, even they didn't know what it was supposed to be, and as far as we know now, that's still the case unless there's an update I missed.

They are apparently working on more than one project, so maybe we will see two new IP from them this gen. Maybe.

Tried to get into this, love the aesthetic, but it bores me to tears and I don’t understand the appeal

Really wish Rare would go back to their roots

If you aren't playing with other people, the game starts slowing down after a few hours.

 

[Elysion]

It’s crazy to think that, other than Kinect Sports Rivals back in 2014, Sea of Thieves is the only game Rare has released in the last decade (unless I’m forgetting something?). They’re as bad as Retro in this regard. I know, game development is harder and takes longer than ever before, but still… just one AAA game in an entire decade? Do we even know when we can expect another game from them?

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

It’s crazy to think that, other than Kinect Sports Rivals back in 2014, Sea of Thieves is the only game Rare has released in the last decade (unless I’m forgetting something?). They’re as bad as Retro in this regard. I know, game development is harder and takes longer than ever before, but still… just one AAA game in an entire decade? Do we even know when we can expect another game from them?

They released the Rare Replay collection and had some hands-on with the Battle Toads reboot. But for major titles yeah that's it.

But if you look back at the team when Sea of Thieves first released it makes some sense given that they have only grown since, they were all hands on SoT in the earlier years.

 

[Havoc2049]

It’s crazy to think that, other than Kinect Sports Rivals back in 2014, Sea of Thieves is the only game Rare has released in the last decade (unless I’m forgetting something?). They’re as bad as Retro in this regard. I know, game development is harder and takes longer than ever before, but still… just one AAA game in an entire decade? Do we even know when we can expect another game from them?

Is Retro maintaining an MMO? Sea of Thieves has had three game size updates, numerous mid size updates, seasonal updates and lately Sea of Theives Adventures.

Although I do wish it was Rare that was making the new Perfect Dark.

 

[Henry Panic]

I know he's banned now but the guy talking about Rare in the N64 days is not being very fair. Gaming was a lot smaller back then, and game budgets were tiny compared to today.
A game selling 1mil back then was often a big success financially.

I never said anything about their success.

Crazy how one established user can deceive by changing the conversation and people roll with it without checking first.

Like the console warring that didn't happen. Because there wasn't ever a console comparison.