Rare is Adding a 4th Team For Content Updates

  • WilliamHerschel
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    I didn't see this posted anywhere else, but this is promising. This will make the lead times longer and bigger for new content. It'd be cool if Rare introduced us to these teams at some point via youtube video(s). It's worth reading the whole interview with Joe Neate and Mike Chapman below.

    May 29, 2018  /  Xbox

    Sea of Thieves Interview: Adding a fourth content team, future updates, and The Hungering Deep

    Sea of Thieves Interview: Adding a fourth content team, future updates, and The Hungering Deep

    It has been a few weeks since Sea of Thieves launched, but what comes next?

    Joe: "We don't like doing anything "normal" or "traditional," we like to explore new things. We like this idea for introducing new content. We want our content updates to be very regular, and we're currently nailing that down. We split into three separate game teams to support this, switching between content updates. The Hungering Deep team had the shortest lead time, working on it for the last six or seven weeks. That team will now move on to their next big update. Then you have the teams working on Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores, and those guys have a bit of a longer lead time. What we're trying to do is bring new content faster to players, while extending the amount of lead time each team has to create this bunch of new content.

    As we build up, each time will hopefully have a longer lead time as well. We're currently spinning up the fourth team, we're all in on Sea of Thieves..."

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  • NeburDZerep
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    This is definitely great news for the future!

  • MATTYJOLTZ

    This makes me very excited, so many ideas they can just flesh out from these forums!

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @williamherschel

    A really excellent find and some very enlightening comments in there around future plans - thank you for posting!

    Mike Chapman, Design Director, Rare: Hahaha. The reason why we're coy as well is that there's a little kind of "quest line" in the game to support The Hungering Deep. The same way we hinted and teased with the community, that's kind of part of that quest experience where it slowly gets revealed to you. We don't want to give too much away.

    Joe: We've tried to give you a small crafted adventure to go along with it, and that'll be our tactic for introducing new content into the game. With Hungering Deep, we're bringing in a new A.I. threat, we're bringing in a bunch of new tools including the shouting trumpet and the flags system. They're cool because they add to the richness of Sea of Thieves. Every time you play, there will be a chance of encountering the new A.I. threat and experience the new systems. The quest will highlight the stuff we're bringing into the game.

  • The Estler
    Master
    Insider

    Bumping this because more people should be looking at this...

  • The Estler
    Master
    Insider

    Joe "We're currently spinning up the fourth team, we're all in on Sea of Thieves..."

  • AristonSparta

    If this does introduce a persistent threat, I believe they should add a chest of some sort, otherwise these awesome monstrosities become little more than an annoyance

  • Vaca Hombre
    Champion
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @aristonsparta

    I'd rather it earned you rep with a new faction (the Bilge Rats maybe?), which would unlock new cosmetics.

    Having it drop actual chests seems too much like just another skeleton fort. At least with rep gain, you can still keep the same team-up mentality it started off with.

  • Hudson RL
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    “we're all in on Sea of Thieves..." all I need to hear guys ❤️

    Going to be playing this for such a long time and I love it.

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    I wonder what they'll be tasked with.

  • BraxKedren
    Captain
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    Founder

    @xcalypt0x said in Rare is Adding a 4th Team For Content Updates:

    I wonder what they'll be tasked with.

    I imagine more content updates. It sounds like they currently have 3 teams that work on these , but they are adding a fourth to really have lots of stuff coming.

  • KnifeLife
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    This is definitely a step in the right direction, credit where its due!:)

  • Hynieth
    Master
    Insider

    Great news :-) Loved the hungering deep. Imagine if we get new content even bigger content every few months, the end result would be a huge game compared to what launched. :-)

    Thanks @Rare-Employee I'm enjoying your content so much!

  • PikAvenger
    Rogue

    Yay. Another development team to disappoint us.

  • DrunkPunk138
    Master
    Founder

    Great article. A little bummed to see them talk about pets being so far out. But it's nice to see their design philosophy with these updates.

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    @braxkedren That would be nice.

    I wonder if they would be more effective as a permanent bug fix and QoL team though. That way the other 3 teams can focus solely on new content.

  • hallower1980
    Commander
    Founder

    Hopefully, the fourth team is not event focused. It's a great plan to have three sequential teams working on major updates. But I would devote the fourth team to fleshing out the world with dynamics and cosmetics on a regular basis, not on a semi-annual event schedule.

    Rare should check out For Honor's system. That game has apparently maintained a growing community, me among them. Every week like clockwork new cosmetics and often new animations are added. So there's a steady stream of fresh content and always something to look forward to. Additionally, there are daily challenges offering bonus gains and encouraging players to experiment.

    Rare could devote that team to the updates they already announced but delayed, like pets and legendary ships. But what Sea of Thieves needs most at this time is more world dynamics and more voyage variety. Don't expand the world before enriching it.

  • A Cranky Eskimo
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Some of mikes quotes are as grandiose as ever, I really hope the game can live up to them...

    “Mike: We've talked about adding ways to play, adding more quest types, enriching the quest types we had. Goals. Enriching the journey, so more mechanics for the adventures you have. More compelling, more meaningful. Each session should play even more different from the last.”

    Vague as always, I don’t doubt they will deliver on this quote, I just hope it’s actually true in the way most people feel about those words, more fetch quests or more items to fetch aren’t going to cut it imo.

  • NWO Azcrack
    Master

    Im glad they pushed off pets. As much as i want them, we need content first. Sounds like they heard us.

  • fluidsc
    Master
    Insider

    @williamherschel Rare already gave you weekly content updates... you guys just refuse to understand that the weekly patches were content updates. Getting things like "handing out items" every week will add up quickly. Everyone wants to be spoonfed everything all at once though.

    They even used to refer to the weekly updates as "content updates". The "Weekly Events" used to be called "Live Campaigns".

    If people would just shut up and let them develop the game using the timeline and roadmap that they had to begin with, everything you want would come. ;)

  • AristonSparta

    @v**a-hombre I like this idea much better. A rep gain would be nice.

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