‘Sea Of Thieves’ Update: Microtransactions & Monthly Content Updates

Sea of Thieves is bringing microtransactions to the game.

Now that the bad news is out of the way, Sea of Thieves seems to be expanding their open-world pirate game by adding new quests and a brand new PvP system. According to PC Gamer, the game will receive monthly updates that contain bug fixes and adds new content that will have the players coming back to play again.

The first update contains a new voyage mission, which is a repeatable quest that is the centerpiece in Sea of Thieves activities. This first update is called the Black Powder Stashes update.

The update is 19.53 GB, which has received some backlash, but executive producer Joe Neate says it was about getting the fixes done. “Our ideal scenario was that we got that patchwork done and we released a smaller patch, but we’ve made the decision to get that full game update [out there] because of all the fixes it’s got which is going to improve the experience for everyone,” he said, according to PC Gamer, “but it is a full game size update … you’re going to be downloading the client again.”

Within the new update are new pets. They will be available in the shop, along with emotes and other things. According to the developers, the reason they are throwing microtransactions aren’t because of giving players an advantage to those who don’t pay, but it’s an optional payment for cosmetic choices only. You can design your ships with microtransactions, such as Perfect Dark and Banjo Kazooie figureheads. The new ship design cosmetics will be with the pets and emotes in the shop.

“We are listening,” said studio head Craig Duncan, according to PC Gamer. “We’re seven days in, so we’re still very much absorbing that [feedback], and we’ll try to get back in front of you guys in a video where we talk about some of that stuff, most likely ‘top issues and sentiments’ version, rather than—because these are bugs and service scale issues.”