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91-636: Virtual events included keynote sessions from major publishers broadcast from a live stage in Los Angeles, an awards show, and a preview night, as well as helping companies to hold online private meetings with media and businesses. Because of the online-only nature, the event had been rebranded for the year as the Electronic Entertainment Experience rather than the standard Electronic Entertainment Expo . Greg Miller , Jacki Jing, and Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez served as hosts of

182-400: A PlayStation console. Sea of Thieves is a first-person perspective action-adventure game. At the beginning of the game, the player selects their procedurally generated player avatar . The game is set in a shared world, which means groups of players will encounter each other throughout their adventures. Solo and duo players sail around in a nimble sloop while players playing in

273-483: A pirate ship from a first-person perspective . Groups of players encounter each other consistently during their pilgrimages, sometimes forming alliances, and sometimes going head-to-head. Sea of Thieves was conceived in 2014. Rare was inspired by players of PC games such as Eve Online (2003), DayZ (2018), and Rust (2018), who used the game tools to create their own stories. Rare explored different settings, such as vampires and dinosaurs, before settling on

364-436: A "shared world" adventure game, Rare opted to maintain the distance between each player group in a server rather than limiting the number of players a server can accommodate, so that players get to encounter other players regularly but not too frequently. Chapman estimated that a player will see another player-controlled ship every 15 minutes to half an hour. The gameplay was designed to encourage player interactions and to test

455-658: A comic series written by Jeremy Whitley in March 2018. Titan Books also worked with Rare to publish an art book named Tales from the Sea of Thieves . A free expansion titled A Pirate's Life , which is based on Disney 's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, was released on June 22, 2021, and spans five Tall Tales. The expansion was in development for about two years. A second free expansion titled The Legend of Monkey Island , based on Lucasfilm Games ' Monkey Island series,

546-444: A competition which tasked fans to create achievements for the game. Several stress tests and betas were released ahead of the game's official launch on 17 March. At launch, many players reported that they could not log into the game. Duncan said that Rare underestimated the server capacity as the number of people logging in to play the game during the launch period was unexpectedly high. Various fixes have been released to improve

637-540: A former editor and video host for the entertainment website IGN . He is the co-founder and CEO of the entertainment company Kinda Funny , and has been employed by WWE as a host since 2022. Miller was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois , on April 27, 1983. Growing up, he was very interested in video games and dreamed of writing for Electronic Gaming Monthly or GamePro . He was the editor-in-chief of both of his high school's newspapers. In 2005, he graduated from

728-515: A group control a larger three-person brigantine or a four-person galleon cooperatively by assuming different roles, such as steering the ship, manning the cannons, navigating, boarding enemy ships, and scouting from the crow's nest . Players can save the loadout of the ship and customize the ship's hull, figurehead, sails and captain's quarters, as well as name their ship. Occasionally players may encounter hostile players who may attack them with cannonballs or board their ship. If areas under

819-429: A journey that all of them would fondly remember. Neate added that the game's goal was to evoke "[a] sense of travel and exploration and discovery", and the team was inspired by the 2002 video game The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker . The team implemented the "infinite pirate generator" instead of allowing players to customize their avatar as they feared that some players would create "abominations" that would not have fit

910-489: A later time. To host the online event, the ESA offered a mobile app and online portal to the public. Members of the media and press had access to this app and portal on June 7, for a media access week prior to the event. The public obtained access on June 12. The app and portal were used for accessing game showcases, developer panels, and press conferences, with some of this content also mirrored onto streaming services. Members of

1001-796: A look at the Borderlands film. Microsoft and Bethesda Softworks held a joint press conference on June 13, 2021, at 10 a.m. PDT. Games presented included Starfield , S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 , Back 4 Blood , Contraband , Sea of Thieves , Battlefield 2042 , 12 Minutes , Psychonauts 2 , Fallout 76 , The Elder Scrolls Online , Party Animals , Hades , Somerville , Halo Infinite , Diablo II Resurrected , A Plague's Tale: Requiem , Far Cry 6 , Slime Rancher 2 , Atomic Heart , Replaced , Grounded , Among Us , Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes , The Ascent , The Outer Worlds 2 , Microsoft Flight Simulator , Forza Horizon 5 and Redfall . Square Enix held

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1092-400: A more systematic manner by introducing shipwrecks and forts that players can discover. Chapman described these locations of interest as the "catalyst for stories" which draw different players together, fostering cooperation or competition. Being attacked by sea monsters also adds a layer of unpredictability to the game as these encounters are random. Due to the emergent gameplay, Sea of Thieves

1183-657: A new monetization scheme, the "Devolver MaxPass+". As part of the actual presentation, Devolver sold a single "NFT" copy - a "non-fuckwithable tape" rather than a non-fungible token - of the presentation which sold for $ 1,000 , the funds going to the Scratch Foundation charity. UploadVR held a presentation focusing on virtual reality games on June 12, 2021. Among games featured in this presentation included: Limited Run Games held its annual #LRG3 event on June 14, 2021, at 1 p.m. PDT. It featured over 25 new announcements for games being published physically, including

1274-461: A pirate theme inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean films and The Goonies (1985). The game features a progression system that only unlocks cosmetic items as the development team wanted to encourage both casual and experienced players to play together. Rare departed from its reputation for secrecy during Sea of Thieves 's development, inviting fans to test early builds. Sea of Thieves

1365-567: A press event on June 13, 2021, at 12:15 p.m. PDT. Games announced included Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy , remasters of Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy VI , Legend of Mana , Marvel's Avengers , Babylon's Fall , Life Is Strange Remastered Collection , Life Is Strange: True Colors , and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin . PC Gamer presented its PC Gaming Show event on June 13, 2021, at 2:30 p.m. PDT. Among games featured included: Capcom 's E3 presentation

1456-507: A real player in a real crew with a real name - that's really hard to do if you've already painted everyone down a path you want them to go through." — Joe Neate, executive producer of Rare Studio director Craig Duncan described Sea of Thieves as the "friendliest" multiplayer game. While Rare is traditionally a console game developer, it realized how players from PC survival games like DayZ and Rust and simulation games such as Eve Online crafted their own stories by using

1547-643: A release for Steam in April 2020. Players began to set rules, develop their own sets of challenges, and host their own events. To further encourage these players, Rare announced plans to incorporate private servers into the game. Rare envisioned Sea of Thieves to be a " game as a service " and expected it to continue receiving updates for 10 years. After the team had fixed most of the technical issues, they began looking at players' feedback and identified that players were complaining that there were not enough activities for them to participate in. Chapman stated that

1638-479: A retail release, Sea of Thieves is an Xbox Play Anywhere title and the game was made available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch. However, crossplay between PC and Xbox One players was made optional in February 2019 to ensure that all players feel that "they have a level playing field". On PC, the game was initially only available through Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft Store before Microsoft announced

1729-506: A showcase on June 11, 2021, at 12 p.m. PDT., as part of the Summer Game Fest. Alongside introducing their new publishing label, Prime Matter, Koch Media's presenting covered the following games: IGN held its IGN Expo event on June 11, 2021, at 1 p.m. PDT. Among featured games included: Wholesome Games held its Wholesome Direct event on June 12, 2021, at 10 a.m. PDT. It featured over 75 indie titles from small developers around

1820-468: A single day. Game Pass contributed to half of the game's sales, though Microsoft added that the game also sold well in both retail and digital formats. The game passed five million players in August 2018. In January 2020, Rare declared the game was "the most successful IP [Microsoft has] released in the generation ", with it amassing more than 10 million players. In addition to good sales, Sea of Thieves

1911-408: A structured narrative, they would only be playing a handcrafted experience. Joe Neate, the game's executive director, described the game as an "improv" comedy, and added that the game is about going "off-script". Rare shaped the world and the game's lore to reflect players' actions, including various easter eggs to celebrate their actions or achievements. The team believed that if a narrative campaign

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2002-495: A two-day showcase of new game announcements over June 5 and June 12, 2021. Games announced during the two-day event included: Geoff Keighley 's second Summer Game Fest kicked off around the same time as E3 2021 and will last two months, through Gamescom in August 2021, featuring a range of promotional events outside of E3. Though Keighley had already stepped away from participating in E3 2020 before its cancellation, he arranged

2093-592: A video game by Mike Bithell . Miller appears in full motion video sequences playing Jim Ratio, who serves as the player's handler throughout the campaign. Miller was one of five co-owners of the FCF Wild Aces indoor football team. Miller married his first wife while in college, but the couple divorced in 2008. He married his second wife, French Canadian video game shipment company co-founder Geneviève St-Onge, in May 2017. They have one child together. Miller

2184-491: Is fun to explore". Sam Loveridge from GamesRadar likewise commented that the game is "an anecdote generator at its very best" due to its emergent storytelling. Brandin Tyrrel from IGN stated that " Sea of Thieves works well when treated like a chat room or a party game , where it serves as catalyst for having a good time with the people you're with". The gameplay received generally negative reviews. Devore felt that

2275-714: The Halo series and the Gears of War franchise were released in June and November 2019 respectively, as well as a ship set based on Ori and the Will of the Wisps released in March 2020. Rare also expanded Sea of Thieves to other media. It had partnered with Mongoose Publishing to release a tabletop game titled Sea of Thieves Roleplaying Game in October 2019. Titan Comics debuted

2366-494: The 3DO game Plumbers Don't Wear Ties . GamesRadar+ hosted its second Future Games Show on June 14, 2021, with hosts Troy Baker and Laura Bailey . Games featured during the presentation included: Hooded Horse held its presentation on June 14, 2021. Games featured during the presentation included: Freedom Games held its first event on June 15, 2021. Games featured during the presentation included: Yooreka Studio held its presentation on June 15, 2021. Games featured during

2457-596: The Anniversary update, IGN stated that players should give the game a second chance and that it was the "perfect time" to return to the game. One of its writers, David Jagneaux, praised the Tall Tales and its riddles in his second review, which he described as "brain teasers that really challenge [player's] detective skills". In his summary, he wrote that the game is a "pirate fantasy sandbox with an enormous amount of things to do, made unpredictable and exciting by

2548-748: The University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri , where he earned a degree in journalism and wrote for the Columbia Missourian , becoming the editor-in-chief Tom Warhover's go-to writer for video game content. Miller started his career at the Columbia Tribune in 2005, after he was unable to find a job writing about video games. There, he was a general assignment reporter working the weekend nightshift and covering everything from politics to sports to tragedies. In 2006, he convinced

2639-711: The Xbox One X console from 18 to 24 March would receive a free digital copy of the game. Microsoft's Australian branch partnered with music band Captain Hellfire & The Wretched Brethren for a two-day event in which the pirate band sang different sea shanties requested by players. The program was broadcast via Facebook , Mixer, and Twitch from 24 to 25 March 2018. Microsoft also launched "The Quest", an alternate reality game where players needed to solve different riddles. The winners would receive one of four golden bananas (each valued at £20,000) as rewards. Rare also hosted

2730-535: The game physics also received praise. The multiplayer portion of the game was well received. Jordan Devore from Destructoid noted that with a full crew, the game could get chaotic and situations could turn volatile very quickly. He added that cooperation with strangers could create unforgettable experiences for players which could be deeply satisfying. Peter Brown from GameSpot also enjoyed coordinating with other players and goofing around, though he remarked that some players were trolling others which caused

2821-522: The Hunter's Call and the Reaper's Bones, do not offer quests. The Hunter's Call will reward players who bring them cooked fish and meat, particularly from rarer types of fish. The Reaper's Bones will pay for all kinds of treasures, and players can also give them special cursed treasures or emissary flags stolen from other ships. Players must deliver treasure to representatives of the quest-giving faction, though

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2912-578: The Merchant Alliance. In the quests offered by Gold Hoarders, players are given a treasure map or a riddle to locate a treasure chest. The voyages offered by the Order of Souls are combat challenges, in which players travel to islands specified by the quest to defeat waves of skeletons. The Merchant Alliance's missions require players to deliver animals or cargo to certain vendors within a limited time. Three smaller factions also exist. Two of them,

3003-859: The Nintendo Direct. Games included Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Life Is Strange , Life Is Strange: True Colors , Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy , Worms Rumble , Astria Ascending , Two Point Campus , Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania , Mario Party Superstars , Metroid Dread , Just Dance 2022 , Cruis'n Blast , Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot , Mario Golf: Super Rush , Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin , WarioWare: Get It Together! , Shin Megami Tensei V , Danganronpa Decadance , Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water , Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope , Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp , Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity , The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD , and

3094-468: The Xbox platform as part of the Summer Game Fest. The Summer Game Fest opened with an announcement stream of games hosted by Keighley on June 10, 2021. Among titles presented include: The Summer Game Fest included the first Tribeca Games Spotlight on June 11, 2021, featuring games that had been nominated for the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival Video Game award. These games included: Koch Media presented

3185-464: The Xbox store and in-game. Rare released monthly updates and introduced new Tall Tales, new modes, new quests, and new features until December 2020. In December 2020, Rare announced that they would move away from producing monthly updates for the game and instead, adopt the "battle pass" model popularised by games such as Fortnite and Fall Guys . Each season, which would last for about three months, would introduce new content or new ways of playing

3276-524: The addition of other players". Nicole Carpenter from Polygon praised the post-launch updates for making the title more "curated" with more structure and direction. The game also received PC Gamer ' s Best Ongoing Game 2019 award, and was listed by Gameindustry.biz as one of their Games of the Year in 2019. Sea of Thieves was a commercial success, attracting more than 1 million players two days after it released. During its week of release, it

3367-486: The channel to Kinda Funny , and produced a weekly show called GameOverGreggy , alongside fellow IGN colleagues Nick Scarpino and Tim Gettys. In 2014, they started a Patreon to fund their side project. Miller and his castmates left IGN on January 5, 2015, to found a company named after their YouTube channel. In 2017 and 2018, Miller hosted the D.I.C.E. Awards alongside Jessica Chobot . In 2021, he hosted E3 alongside Jacki Jing and Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez. Miller

3458-416: The combat felt bland. Many critics commented that players would not be motivated to complete quests because only cosmetic items are unlocked. Tyrrel praised the ship combat, though he felt that the respawn system was too forgiving. Christian Donlan from Eurogamer likewise called the ship combat "thrilling" and the general combat "crunchy, pleasantly basic". Tyler Wilde from PC Gamer liked exploring

3549-400: The deck take damage, water will flow in and cause the ship to gradually sink. Players need to patch up the holes with planks of wood and bail out water using buckets. Alliances can be established with other player crews. When a treasure item is sold by a member of an alliance, all other members receive gold and reputation points at half of the item's normal value. Ships in an alliance fly

3640-430: The event included: Annapurna Interactive held its first event on July 29, 2021. Games shown off in the event included: GLITCH debuted its Future of Play Direct showcase on June 12, 2021. It featured 22 titles from developers around the world. The games included were: Greg Miller (Internet celebrity) Gregory James Miller (born April 27, 1983) is an American media personality who came to prominence as

3731-657: The event to be cancelled as well, leading to the announcement of the event's official discontinuation in December 2023. Companies that participated at the event included Nintendo , Microsoft ,  Capcom , Ubisoft , Take-Two Interactive , Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment , Koch Media , Square Enix , Sega , Gearbox Software , Bandai Namco Entertainment , Turtle Beach , Verizon , and Xseed Games . Konami had planned to participate but announced later they would not be ready to present at E3 as they were deep into development on several projects which they would reveal at

E3 2021 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-400: The experience to be frustrating. Jeff Grubb from VentureBeat also enjoyed the game, saying that playing with strangers often created numerous hilarious moments. Kyle Hilliard from Game Informer stated that each session "results in a story" due to the emergent gameplay, and praised Rare for successfully creating an excellent "pirate simulator" and "manufacturing a digital playground that

3913-605: The feature as it was one of the biggest fan requests. The Anniversary update that added both Tall Tales and Arena mode was so massive that it was described as a "relaunch" for the game. All the expansions are free of charge as they did not want to divide the player base. Smuggler's Fortune , which was released in September 2019, added the Pirate Emporium, a new store that supports microtransactions . A new type of currency named "Ancient Coins" can be purchased from both

4004-464: The first Summer Game Fest as a replacement for the cancelled show. Sony and the PlayStation brand had announcements during this event, forgoing E3 as they have done so from previous years, instead opting to do a dedicated State of Play event for the summer on July 8, 2021. Announcements made during the event include: From June 15–21, 2021, ID@Xbox offered a number of demos of upcoming games on

4095-408: The freedom to do what they want in the game's world and decide freely how they want to play and behave. The team looked at various sources for inspiration, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Black Sails . Designer Mike Chapman believed a lot of parallels can be drawn between Sea of Thieves and The Goonies , in which a group of friends bond together while they search for treasure, creating

4186-521: The game as the "most ambitious project" from Rare. Initially set to be released in 2017, the game was delayed to early 2018 to allow additional development time. Microsoft marketed the game extensively. Players who pre-ordered the game received the Black Dog Pack, which included exclusive cosmetic content and access to a closed beta . Players could also purchase a separate Sea of Thieves -themed Xbox wireless controller , and anyone who purchased

4277-422: The game could become a platform where players can befriend strangers. Rare further added that they felt they had a responsibility to create a "positive online social space". Design changes were made to champion the concept of cooperation and friendship. For instance, players cannot hurt others in the same crew, and all rewards are shared equally among crew members. In one of the game's early prototypes, players in

4368-488: The game via post-launch updates, can be traded for cosmetics, gold, or reputation to the other factions. The Anniversary update added Tall Tales, which are a series of structured narrative missions. Selling treasures to any of the three main trading companies, as well as Reaper's Bones or Athena's Fortune, earns the player reputation points, which unlock more complicated quests from each faction and additional purchasable cosmetics. When players reach rank 50 with any three of

4459-467: The game's content would resonate with players. The team allowed fans to take part in the game's development by joining the Insider's Program, which granted players access to an early build of the game. The program allowed Rare to experiment with different features while collecting players' feedback. The participants could also discuss with the developers in a private forum. More than 30,000 players joined

4550-429: The game's development. Rare employees also provided the voices for all of the non-playable characters . Sea of Thieves marked Rare's shift from using its own proprietary engine to using Unreal Engine 4 . Prior to Sea of Thieves , Rare was often considered a secretive studio. Since Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer-focused game, the studio adopted a more transparent approach to the game's development to ensure that

4641-471: The game's online infrastructure. Sea of Thieves was released on Steam on June 3, 2020, and reached the "global top sellers" list in the same week. The game was released for the PlayStation 5 on April 30, 2024, as part of Microsoft's strategy to bring some of its games to rival platforms. It went on to become the platform's most downloaded game in North America in May 2024. In addition to being

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4732-521: The game's visual style. The game features a stylized visual style with hand-painted textures. Duncan added that the team chose this painted art style because they wanted it to be "timeless" and reflect the "joyful" and "delightful" game world. Rare noticed that in many multiplayer games, experienced players would focus on grinding for endgame content instead of playing with other players, while novice players would worry about their progression lagging significantly behind more experienced players. Therefore,

4823-537: The game, with live events being hosted regularly. Rare also introduced the "Plunder Pass", an optional premium tier that grants players additional rewards which does have free options. The first season began in January 2021 and Season 2 began in April 2021. Rare also announced that they would stop updating the Arena mode as the vast majority of the players spent their time playing the cooperative adventure mode. Arena mode

4914-399: The gap between each expansion. The ultimate goal was to make the game "as big and successful as it can be". The first major expansion, The Hungering Deep , was developed within 2 months. The second expansion, Cursed Sails , introduced skeleton ships controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). Despite being adamant about not doing so prior to the game's launch, the team decided to implement

5005-441: The initial release, which improved its reception. Sea of Thieves was a commercial success and became Microsoft's most successful original intellectual property of the eighth generation , attracting more than 40 million players by April 2024. A native Xbox Series X/S version of the game was released on March 13, 2024, and the game was released for the PlayStation 5 on April 30, 2024, making it Rare's first game to be released on

5096-792: The media were able to register for access starting on May 24, while industry professionals and creators and influencers were able to register on May 31. General members of the public were able to register on June 3. Ubisoft livestreamed its Ubisoft Forward E3 video event on June 12, 2021, at 12 p.m. PDT. Games covered during the event included Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction , Rocksmith+ , Riders Republic , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege , Assassin's Creed: Valhalla , Just Dance 2022 , Far Cry 6 , Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope , and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora . Gearbox Software held its E3 spotlight on June 12, 2021, at 2 p.m. PDT., providing more info on Tiny Tina's Wonderlands , Godfall , Homeworld 3 , Tribes of Midgard and

5187-663: The ocean, they may sometimes face adverse weather conditions such as thunderstorms, or encounter shipwrecks, messages in bottles, barrels, skeleton ships, ghost fleets, or two monsters: the megalodon and the kraken . Skull-shaped clouds indicate the locations of Skeleton Forts, which are raids that can be completed by players in the same server. Players can interact with each other using emotes and by speaking via an in-game text and voice system. They can also play musical instruments together and drink at taverns . The Anniversary update allows players to engage in leisure activities like fishing, hunting, and cooking. Sea of Thieves

5278-691: The paper to give him his own column called Game Over to write about video games in addition to the difficult subject matter of his general assignments. Miller joined IGN in 2007. Miller was a frequent cast member and host on the IGN audio-video podcasts Game Scoop! and Podcast Beyond . Miller gained popularity with IGN fans hosting a video show called Up At Noon . Miller started his YouTube channel GameOverGreggy in 2012, and he and IGN co-worker Colin Moriarty were allowed to produce content as long as it wasn't about video games. In 2013, they rebranded

5369-538: The player holding the chest is defenseless and it may be taken from them by other players. Selling the treasure earns players gold, which can be used to purchase cosmetic items. Pets, emotes , and further cosmetic items can also be purchased using real-world currency by accessing the Pirate Emporium store. Doubloons , earned through completing commendations from the Bilge Rats, the fourth trading company that distributes quests, challenges, and cosmetics added to

5460-495: The player's soft skills . Players need to exercise their common sense in order to solve the challenges: for instance, players need to learn to read maps. To encourage players to develop these skills, the game does not feature a beginner's tutorial as the team wanted players to discover the game's mechanics by themselves. The team also intentionally avoided setting gameplay rules to encourage players to utilize their creativity. Despite this, Rare also included emergent gameplay in

5551-564: The presentation included: New Blood Interactive held its presentation on June 16, 2021. Games featured during the presentation included: From June 16–22, 2021, Valve ran its Steam Next Fest, a rebranding of its prior Steam Game Festival which it first ran in 2019. During the event, Valve had hundreds of game demos available via the Steam platform along with livestreams with developers and selected game sales. Electronic Arts had its separate EA Play event on July 22, 2021. Games shown off in

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5642-446: The program. Through the program, Rare learned more about how players interact with each other and used the information to help the team make gameplay decisions; for instance, the team decided to include solo play after many players from the Insider's Program requested it. "I love the idea of things happening in the world that literally can shape the ongoing fabric and lore of Sea of Thieves . The Black Beard of Sea of Thieves being

5733-437: The quests were repetitive and that the world did not have a lot of interesting things to do. Paul Tamburro from Game Revolution agreed, remarking that the quests had little variety and did not allow room for creativity. While he praised the sandbox format, he felt that there were not enough secrets or stories players could discover in the world. Loveridge called the voyages "elaborated fetch quests ". He lamented that there

5824-469: The same crew can betray each other, though the feature was scrapped because the team felt that the experience was "horrible". Neate added that the game provided "literally no reason or motivation to do anything other than cooperate". Rare incorporated several anti-toxicity measures. For instance, players can vote to lock a disruptive player into the brig . Sea of Thieves was announced during Microsoft's press conference at E3 2015 , with Duncan describing

5915-594: The same flag and are visible on the map tables on other ships in the alliance. Forming an alliance does not prevent players from attacking each other. If a player dies, there is a limited window of time during which they are able to be revived by crewmates or allied player crews. If they are not revived in time, they are sent to a ghost ship known as the Ferry of the Damned where they wait until they can respawn on their crew's ship. A competitive multiplayer mode named "Arena"

6006-597: The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . Nintendo also announced a limited edition Game & Watch for the Zelda series for its 35th anniversary that included the original Zelda game, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link , and Link's Awakening . Editors from IGN , GameSpot , PC Gamer , and GamesRadar+ collectively decided on the Best of E3 Awards on June 15, 2021. Among their picks, Forza Horizon 5

6097-432: The shipwrecks, believing that exploration evokes a sense of discovery, though he commented that he wished more emergent events would happen in the ocean. Solo play received mixed opinions. Some critics thought that it was more difficult, boring, and maddening, while some remarked that it was entertaining, satisfying, and relaxing. After a year of updates, the game received more positive reviews from critics. Following

6188-908: The six trading companies, they will earn the title of "pirate legend", which grants players new cosmetic items and access to a pirate hideout, the Tavern of Legends, as well as a special trading company called Athena's Fortune. Players can freely explore the game's open world on their own or with other players. When exploring islands players can find various resources: food like bananas, coconuts, and mangos, which restore their health , as well as wood planks, firebombs, blunderbombs, and cannonballs. Rowboats can be used to carry cargo while avoiding potential hazards. There are eight weapons players can choose from, including cutlasses , pistols , blunderbusses , sniper rifles , throwing knives , double barrel pistols , blowpipes and harpoon guns, that can be used to defeat hostile enemies. When players are sailing on

6279-470: The team hoped that these live events can "bring a sense of continual danger to the world". Mysteries were inspired by alternate reality games, in which hints would be given to the player both in and out of the game. Sea of Thieves saw frequent collaborations with other Microsoft franchises. The Bird and Bear Figurehead, based on Rare's own Banjo-Kazooie series, was released in July 2018. Ships based on

6370-423: The team introduced "horizontal progression", in which players would only earn cosmetic items as they achieved a higher rank; all items have the same attributes, so endgame content would not confer gameplay bonuses to experienced players. Rare thought this progression system would encourage more experienced players to assist novice players in completing voyages, and reduce the gap between the two experience levels. As

6461-566: The team's strategy was to give players what they want, ensure that they fit within the Sea of Thieves universe, and "surprise" players. Rare has four teams of employees working in parallel to create the game's various expansions so that large content updates can be released frequently while ensuring that sufficient development time can be given to each team. The team hoped to release a large content update every 6 weeks to 2 months, and used "Bilge Rat Adventures", which are time-limited challenges, to fill

6552-411: The tools provided in the game. However, Rare remarked that these games are often very punishing in nature, and the team aspired to create a more light-hearted and accessible version of these games. Sea of Thieves was designed to be a "light canvass of a world" where players create their own stories. The game did not feature any narrative component at launch because the team felt that by offering players

6643-737: The video game Spider-Man as Shirtless Spider-Man. Miller has been a voice actor in numerous other video game titles, including LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 as Howard the Duck, Lego DC Super-Villains as Polka-Dot Man, Lego Marvel's Avengers as Aldrich Killian, and Oddworld: Soulstorm . In 2020, Miller was invited to co-author the story Kill the Batman from The Joker 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 alongside Rogue One writer Gary Whitta . In this year he also appeared in The Solitaire Conspiracy ,

6734-468: The virtual events. E3 2021 followed the cancelled E3 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic and after the ESA could not work out a replacement event in time. The ESA had intended to hold an in person event in 2021 during its normal June dates, as stated to partners in April 2020, but had to alter their plans due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns. E3 2021 was free for everyone to attend. While the 2021 event

6825-399: The world". The game does not feature any character class or specialization to encourage players to adopt different roles. The maximum crew size is four as Rare felt that if the group was too large, it would not reflect a sense of "intimate friendship" and players might splinter off and hinder inter-player communication. Neate described the game as a "friendship creation tool" and hoped that

6916-505: The world. Devolver Digital held its presentation on June 12, 2021, at 1:30 p.m. PT. Games presented included Shadow Warrior 3 , Trek to Yomi , Phantom Abyss , Wizard With a Gun , Death's Door , Inscryption , Devolver Tumble Time , and Demon Throttle . As with its recent presentations, the Devolver Digital continued to use the humor based on the character of Nina Struthers, this time presenting their new games as part of

7007-425: Was also considered a "watchable and sharable game", and the team hoped that this would lure players who watched the game on video game live streaming platforms such as Twitch or Mixer to purchase it. While the game allows solo play, the game is designed to be a multiplayer game in which players cooperate with each other. Chapman added that cooperative gameplay enhances the experience because "it makes sense in

7098-536: Was also popular with viewers, with the title being ranked as one of the most watched titles on Twitch in January 2019 following the Shrouded Spoils update. The game would launch on Steam on 3 June 2020. By July 2020, Sea of Thieves would top 15 million players, including 1 million units sold on Steam and over 3.3 million players logging in during June 2020. The total number of players would continue to rise, reaching 20 million players by March 2021. During

7189-566: Was developed by the UK-based developer Rare . Almost all of Rare's 200 staff members worked on the game. The team began conceptualizing the game in 2014 and wanted to create a title where players could create stories together. The team took five months to create the game's playable prototype, named Athena , using the Unity game engine . After playing the prototype, Microsoft executives including Phil Spencer and Kudo Tsunoda agreed to green-light

7280-483: Was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in August 2012. His cancer has remained in remission since chemotherapy, but he has said that his personality changed due to the experience. Sea of Thieves Sea of Thieves is a 2018 action-adventure game developed by Rare and published by Xbox Game Studios . The player assumes the role of a pirate who completes voyages from different trading companies . The multiplayer game sees players explore an open world via

7371-408: Was entirely online, ESA planned to return to an in-person event by 2022, though these plans were scrapped and the in-person event was cancelled in January 2022, and E3 2022 was cancelled altogether on March 31, 2022, including the digital event. In July 2022, it was confirmed that E3 2023 would mark a return to the in-person event. However, the lack of interest and attendance of major publishers caused

7462-453: Was given on June 14, 2021, at 2:30 p.m. PDT. Games presented included Resident Evil Village , Resident Evil RE:Verse , Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin , Monster Hunter Rise , The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles , and Street Fighter V . Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct for E3 on the final day of the convention, June 15, 2021, at 9 a.m. PDT, followed by a three-hour-long Nintendo Treehouse Live show about titles discussed in

7553-431: Was included, incorporating players' actions into the game's lore would become difficult. The company initially explored different settings and themes for the game, such as vampires and dinosaurs, though it eventually settled on the pirate theme because it matched the game's core concept of encouraging cooperation. Rare also saw less competition in the market for pirate-themed games. The pirate theme allows players to have

7644-447: Was introduced in the Anniversary update, allowing up to six teams of players to compete against each other by gathering silver in smaller maps. Due to low player participation, this game mode was subsequently removed in a later update. A player-versus-environment mode named "Safer Seas" was introduced in December 2023. Players can complete voyages offered by the game's three main trading companies : Gold Hoarders, Order of Souls, and

7735-481: Was named "Trending Gamer" at the 2015 The Game Awards and "Most Entertaining Online Personality" at the 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards . He was nominated for a Streamy Award in 2014 for Rooster Teeth 's The Gauntlet in the category of best collaboration. In 2016, Miller provided the voice of Superboy in DC Universe Online . Miller's affinity for Spider-Man was memorialized in an Easter egg in

7826-625: Was named as the Most Anticipated Game overall, with the Microsoft and Bethesda event as the Best Presentation. This is a list of notable titles that appeared by their developers or publishers at E3 2021. Capcom Gearbox Software Xbox Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks Sega Nintendo Square Enix Ubisoft The Guerrilla Collective, a group of indie game developers and publishers, held

7917-476: Was no option to turn off PvP and players could not customize their own characters. Russ Frushtick from Polygon remarked that misbehaving players may make the experience frustrating because PvP could never be disabled. However, he remarked that the game offered no incentive for players who wanted to engage in PvP combat. Hilliard felt that the game did not have enough content to keep players engaged, and remarked that

8008-412: Was released in March 2018 for Windows and Xbox One ; it was one of the earliest first-party games released for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. It received mixed reviews; critics praised the ship combat, multiplayer, visuals, and physics, but criticized the progression, gameplay, and lack of content. Rare envisioned Sea of Thieves as a " game as a service " and has released numerous content updates after

8099-400: Was released on July 20, 2023, and spans three Tall Tales. Sea of Thieves received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic . Most critics agreed that the game had potential to be successful but lamented that the game suffered from a lack of content and questioned Rare's decision to release it as a full-priced product. The game's graphics and

8190-403: Was shut down in March 2022 after an announcement earlier in the year. Rare described 2022 as the "biggest year yet" for Sea of Thieves , and the studio planned to add more features, including Adventures, which are story-driven live events that last for around two weeks, and Mysteries, which would unfold over the course of several months. Each adventure was designed as a chapter in a long story, as

8281-661: Was the best-selling retail game in the UK, sixth best-selling in Switzerland, and it became the second best-selling game in the US in March 2018 behind Far Cry 5 . On 28 March 2018, Microsoft declared the game as the fastest-selling new IP released for the Xbox One. Rare attributed the game's success to the title releasing for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch, which enabled the game to achieve Rare's sales target for three months in

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