Up to this point, Rare’s Sea of Thieves has operated in a mostly unstructured manner. Sure, there are structured expansions like the recent Forsaken Shores, but mostly players are left to create their own fun. However, Rare has now confirmed that Sea of Thieves will become a little more structured in early 2019. An upcoming update titled “The Arena” includes a structured large-scale competitive PvP mode alongside several ancillary features.
Sea of Thieves Arena Update
According to Rare’s announcement, The Arena is a structured, instanced PvP experience which Sea of Thieves players can queue for. Judging from the below announcement trailer, it looks like Arena matches can support up to four player crews at once. Each crew has their own ship, and the ultimate goal is to secure treasure from surrounding islands. Crews can naturally battle it out either on the high seas with cannons or on-foot with swords and firearms.
The Arena update also includes a fifth NPC faction known as the Sea Dogs. Players itching to hop into Arena matches can also unlock Sea Dogs achievements and awards. In-between matches, players can also congregate at a new Arena tavern and revel in their competitive exploits. That boisterous new NPC who appears in the reveal trailer will undoubtedly make an appearance as well.
A specific release date for the Arena update hasn’t been confirmed as of this writing. However, Rare says The Arena should arrive in early 2019. Before that, though, a fourth major expansion titled Shrouded Spoils launches later this month. Rare will also continue hosting weekly in-game events to fill the space between major expansion releases.
The inclusion of a structured PvP mode certainly feels like a hard left turn for Sea of Thieves. However, it actually mirrors comments that Rare made earlier this year. Back then, Rare said it would always try to put a Sea of Thieves spin on any new features. In that case, the studio was talking specifically about battle royale, and there’s certainly battle royale DNA in The Arena.