@uberkull said in Does Sea of Thieves have an End Of Life plan?:
@theassassinoath said in Does Sea of Thieves have an End Of Life plan?:
Well think about it. The game is doing better than ever now not only because of the recent appearance of various streamers, but because the game has managed to pick itself up from a rough launch and now has reached a point where it can keep players engaged. If this momentum continues (that is, updates continue to be released) and Rare eventually gathers funds from microtransactions to keep it running, who's to say it won't last for many years?
Imo if it comes to the point where they have to pull the plug, it will be because they can no longer squeeze anything else out of the game and you yourself will eventually have moved on. I say don't worry about this so early and enjoy it while you can. In fact, we're at a time of celebration when the game is doing better than ever before in twitch views, please don't ruin that for your own and others' sake!
Think of it like the Sun: sure, it's known that it'll eventually die and destroy our planet in the process, but you most likely won't be alive by then, so why place that burden on your shoulders? You enjoy the relatively tiny amount of time you spend on this Earth and time will go on regardless. It's sad, but it's our reality and it certainly shouldn't bother you to keep that thought away from your mind.
Yet the big streamers that tried it for a couple days have already moved on since SOT really isn’t a shooter and it’s gunplay is too simplistic to be competitive.
Incorrect. I don't follow streamers, and watching twitch bores me out of my mind, so I fact checked whether they had really moved on. As of the time of this post's writing, Ninja is playing SoT, Summit1g is playing SoT and Dr. Disrespect is playing Call of Duty. Just looking up the big names I've seen play in the past few days reveals that no, they have not moved on as you've said. Also, SoT just reached most viewership on twitch of all games, above even Fortnite. Your idea of gunplay being simplistic and not competitive enough is an opinion, and you're entitled to it.
Rare and MS probably have a target number of concurrent players over a time period that they consider ‘still successful’. And probably SOT is still hitting those numbers.
Right you are. Although there are no numbers for current players, the recent rise in popularity and the 50% discount the game has received will probably bring in tons of new players even if momentarily. There's also Game Pass subscribers.
The problem with SOT and new players is that those new players quickly find out this game is nothing more than three rep faction npcs and barbie dressup cosmetic rewards. The core game is 80% sailing from point A to point A, 15% PvE, 5% PvP. You can swap the pve/pvp % at times. The game has very little holding power to the average shooter, rpg, mmo gamer.
Right again! This game isn't for everyone, but you're wrong in assuming all new players will find little to it. Hell I was a new player and while voyages get extremely tiring and repetitive, they only get to that point after you reach Pirate Legend, which gave me more hours of gameplay than any game I've played ever before. My adventures were very memorable and I had very good times sailing with friends. Besides, the way you describe percentages/aspects of SoT could make any online game sound mediocre. If I were to describe it in your terms, is Overwatch not 50% PvP and 50% Barbie dress up? As a new player I saw nothing else in it so it didn't keep me engaged. Is Fortnite not 50% PvP, 45% Barbie dress up, 5% lore sprinkled in between updates? I saw nothing else in it when I played so I was not engaged. We all like the games we like for our own reasons, and reducing that to percentages is cutting right through the complexity of a game. Obviously the above mentioned games have more to them in that the experience is always made different by other players, and no two sessions will be the same: in some you will win and feel great; in others you might do terribly.
So, there certainly should be some thoughts behind closed doors at MS on what eol looks like for SoT. Remember MS is making a big push this year in Console and Windows gaming, I would think they want long-term successful games(enter Halo franchise for MS).
I'm sure they would, and I would hope so, but estimating the shelf life of a game is impossible. Player's interests vary and the competitive market of video games will draw players away from certain games and if the game fails to keep up to the demand and keep those players coming back, the game will die. My argument is: why worry about the end of life now of all moments? The game is more alive than ever, and will continue to be alive thanks to its extremely supportive and loyal community. I'm not saying the conversation shouldn't be had, but this is simply not the right time for that discussion. That is simply my opinion, which I'm entitled to as well.
