Merrick will offer a set of ship customizations including a figurehead, sails, and hull paint, along with a sharky drum and speaking horn. Merrick's shark-themed exclusives aren't the only time-limited rewards, however. The Hungering Deep will also have the Hungering Tattoo Set and some shark-bite scars made available for purchase in-game. And of course, if customizations are your pirate's fancy, there's likely more to c It would also enable a smaller group to crew a galleon, or even bring a larger crew aboard a sloop, though it will not lift the four-player cap . According to Rare, this change is one of the most requested by play (Image: [[https://picography.co/page/1/600|https://picography.co/page/1/600]])A recent patch to Sea of Thieves already extended the game's ship respawn distance , preventing players from respawning their ship within sight of the ship that sunk them, but Rare states in the developer update that the studio has plans to improve that aspect of the [[https://strategyreviewer.com/|strategy game reviews|https://strategyreviewer.com/]] even further. Rare also wishes to address other problems with spawn-killing by adding in-game reminders to players of the "Scuttle" option, and possibly even moving ships to other world instances to avoid prolonged cases of spawn-kill "Congratulations to all of our winners and finalists, whose excellence is driving the games industry forward.Last night’s TIGA Games Industry Awards Ceremony – our largest to date – highlighted excellence, innovation, diversity and creativity in games, businesses and education provide This update and how transparent and honest it is great. It's the right step, and an important one we hope Rare does very frequently. Being open and addressing feedback and constructive criticisms is one of the important keys to success for online games with passionate communities - and those devs who don't communicate or offer game updates quickly are the ones that turn advocates of the game into haters. We see it all the time among some of the other popular games online - especially the ones that streamers are actively play It's a good thing that journeying as a group is rewarding, though, because the actual rewards are lacking. You can bring back various loot to the trading companies to earn gold and gold can be used to purchase various items and clothing. But Rare's decision to make all of the items purely cosmetic is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it means that you won't ever run into any ships with pirates whose levels are in high double digits that blow you out of the water, ensuring that everyone remains on equal footing. But without any items that enhance the experience behind minor appearances, there's not a whole lot to shoot for here. This also means that one easily gets the feeling that you can receive the whole experience within the first few hours, as little evolves (combat pretty much involving only two or three weapons). Needless to say, if Sea of Thieves is ever going to thrive, it's going to need to step up its game when it comes to new additions and content in the future. Not wasting anytime since the game really only released worldwide yesterday, Rare Studio Head Craig Duncan and Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate got together and shot the above video from their offices to offer the first official Sea of Thieves "Developer Update." In it they explain that the game has 3-4 times more players than they had in their final and biggest stress test beta, and had over 1 million players logging in within the first 48 hours - up to more than 5000 players trying to match make per minute. These are numbers they just didn't expect which is a positive nod towards Microsoft's marketing efforts on their big exclusive and a potential indicator of the success of the Xbox Game P With little time left in 2018, Rare is already preparing for next year, beginning with a new PVP mode called The Arena . There is no release date as of yet, but players should expect it to launch early in 2019. According to Polygon , The Arena is not a Battle Royale mode, although the game mode will allow players to compete with one another quickly. The Arena will pit gamers against one another in a search for treasure. The new PVP mode will include a new tavern and a new trading company, The Sea Dogs, who will face off against the players as w The pirated themed co-op was released this past March to mixed reviews. Critics praised the open-world gameplay but found there was too little content to keep players engaged . In response, the developer started churning out new content. Rare began sending out a stream of weekly patches as well as releasing several free expansion packs in order to keep gameplay interesting. The first three updates, The Hungering Deep , Cursed Sails , and Forsaken Shores unveiled a mixture of permanent and time-limited content. Gamers got fog, a volcano, and a megalodon battle added to a world already populated with treasure hunts and fights with angry skeletons. A fourth expansion pack, Shrouded Spoils is set to release later this mo