@bugaboo-bill said:
I completely dont get the TDMers who use SoT for this.
It's completely ridiculous.
I maybe should setup a CS Go server for some Roleplay lol 😁
I completely dont get the roleplayers who use SoT for this.
It's completely ridiculous.
I maybe should setup a GTAV server for some Roleplay lol 😁
@faceyourdemon i'd be happy with a fully customizable private server to build my own RPvEvP community and need not care for anybody else.
No progression needed as long as we can import our actual pirates and setup specific goals to accomplish and have crews compete about it.
@boomtownboss look at the emissary leaderboards and then at the lowest gold ammount turned in
You get about 300k active players being emissaries plus all other active players who refuse to be emissaries
300k isnt so bad
@boomtownboss said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
@cotu42 My mistake, there's certainly power in greater numbers at play here. These games have tens to hundreds of millions more copies sold than SoT. But like you said, it's what I asked for.
I took the games you know... that are at the top of the charts and all that to compare it to, which frankly are mainly older games. Also, I looked at their launch numbers and overall development there. You asked for the comparison to the retention rates compared to sales reflected on concurrent players. Realize you are talking about how many people are online at the same time, not the total player base.
Yet feel free to show me a new IP that is so much better and showcases the game is going down hill. Like feel free to provide a solid case to disprove the stats and information that I am giving that this is very natural and to be expected statistics that are part of the game industry.
After a very... wavy launch, Sea of Thieves has passed 15 million overall players, with 1 million copies sold on Steam.
"It was only 7 months ago in January that there were 10 million players, so 5 million players over 7 months is not bad at all. In fact, more people have played the game in the first half of 2020, which is more than all of 2019, which is more than 2018."
Yet somehow... the game is diminishing and dying out? Rare! What are you doing...
@needsmokes Again false, its what we choose to see, if ill look at the number of purchases and reviews of players who already youll see why its irrelevant.
Many players also didnt wrote any review so i think that we can both agree that there isnt a way to tell from Steam.
You couldn't be more wrong.. Many of the forum regulars here even wrote reviews when it launched saying about their happy transitions. It's all there in black and blue for you to ignore
@needsmokes said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
You couldn't be more wrong.. Many of the forum regulars here even wrote reviews when it launched saying about their happy transitions. It's all there in black and blue for you to ignore
You realize that your claims are also unsupported. Please showcase where the transfer rate of the players on PC from the Xbox platform to the Steam platform come from, as that is something I would actually find fascinating to see.
There are people that moved, but there are also that that haven't. I personally would be surprised if the majority paid 40 bucks to use a different launcher, even if it is the better one. I for one haven't... yet if you have the proof, just out of curiosity please point me to it.
@needsmokes Sorry for blowing your bubble bud but many means nothing, even if you saw hundreds of reviews saying "ive played this game since Mincrosoft" does not cover the OVER MILLION COPIES!
This argument is stupid, youve always fitted the narrative that fits you, i regret starting it, its like talking to a wall.
I hate your guessing game it goes nowhere when you are using emotions over facts and logic.
Sheesh, yet another one of these "Chicken Little" post by an armchair analyst. To debunk your claim:
Our latest Xbox Gameplay Chart shows off some major Xbox Game Pass additions and new releases, including inXile Entertainment's post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland 3.
Still holding in the top 20 most played games in a week on Xbox (without even including Steam players), even after a month without a new content update.
The game has a stable population and is in no way "dying" anytime soon.
SoT is a game as a service model, so its population is going to ebb and flow in time with new content.
The last update was a dry one with only bug fixes/QoL and the featured events are hardly enough to keep people invested for a long time (I personally finished the Hunters of the Deep one in less than a day).
Still, 11K current players (as I type) on just one of the 3 platforms is quite healthy for midweek, off-peak population.
If you read back to my first post, you will see me suggest many of those remaining playing on steam are many who switched from THE MS store..
Yes, millions bought the game.. And millions quit it shortly afterwards.. And by browsing the steam discussions, a lot were unhappy about a lack of specialist servers.
But I'm not getting involved in that debate. Rare will know the answers why many played, and left from various feedback. Can they win those players back somehow?
But none of that matters as Xbox is keeping this Xbox Studios title alive and kicking.. Let's hope it gets a upgrade it deserves when the next gen drops to keep that the case.
The issue isn't new players getting attacked or anything really. We were all new to this game at one point and the game was at its bloodiest when first came out. You couldn't do anything without 4 or 5 ships rolling on.
I remember one of the first days I played, I sank a ship, only to have another ship roll in on my kill and try to take it from me, I sank to that ship and while I spawned at the nearest outpost, I saw another ship roll in and attack THAT ship.
The issue is that Rare has tried to give a ton of content for PvE players to have, and a ton of content to keep a lot of players who have itchy sword hands busy.
They took a step back from making this game a PvPvE world and instead tried to make it to where it was a PvE world that has PvP in it. They completely reworked the environment to control PvP'ers and it failed miserably.
Forts are the perfect example of this -
Forts used to be the most contested area of the game and it was for over 6months straight. 6 months. Rare releases a new event and no one is doing it after a week. The focus has switched from finding and selling loot, to grinding and completing commendations.
Loot was scarce and the loot you found was horrible. If you found a captains chest you felt as if you found an Athena. Even at level 50 GH quests you would find mostly castaways.
Forts were the only place to get RELIABLE Rep and Loot. If you did the math, fighting over a fort was pointless. Most fights lasted 3 or 4 hours MINIMUM and if you were doing quests you could have made all that money ANYWAYS, but players STILL fought over it.
The balance of the game was perfect and it scratched an itch all us gamers have. The itch where we keep doing something over and over thinking to ourselves, "just 10 more mins just 10 more mins" and 4 hours go by. That was the fort. You would fight and before you realized it, when it was all over, you spent 4 to 6 hours on it. Again for loot you could have equally made by questing for 2 or 3 hours, but what happens when you won the skirmish? That exaultation that comes over you. No one sat there going "Oh man we did all that work just for this??", we all said "YEAH WE DID IT! ITS OURS! BOO YEAH!"
There was a clear contested event that everyone went to whether you were PvE or PvP. The fort would appear in the sky like a freaking Thunder Cats beacon and we all ran towards the light like moths to a flame. Everyone went regardless of time spent.
Now?? What can we do?? Where is the signal?? What moment or event brings the whole server together?? What event makes players ignore their quest or mission and they instead decide to go for broke for something??
Forts spawn constantly and you can litterally find MORE loot just by sailing around. The only reason to do forts is for commendations. Proving that the focus of the game has shifted away from what the game is about. Loot.
Having to do a Tall Tale 5 times?? Having to do Ashen winds like 40 or 50 times depending on which boss spawns?? Flame heart like 20 times??
You know what you had to do in the game when it first came out?? How you got cosmetics?? Turn in loot, get rep, that was it. You chose how you wanted to get the loot, you chose how to gather the rep. You got to choose.
The game basically forces you to play this or play that.
Ship combat is also convoluted. You got megs and skelly ships popping up constantly when more than 1 ship is in an area. You can't just have a ship battle without something coming in to interfere and again thats all based on luck as well, who does it spawn on?? What cursed balls is it shooting??
Combat was definitely more balanced and manageable. There wasn't ever a "point of no return" or "critical mass" moments. If you were alive and you killed the boarder you could get out of dodge. Small mistakes didn't end your career like it does now.
The game is so messed up that small mistakes can end your whole ship, or even a lucky shot from a chain shot or anchor ball or whatever. Take too much damage and thats it, fire takes forever to put out if it spreads to teir 3 flames, have to repair masts, wheel, anchor even AFTER killing your boarders.
They reduced the skill ceiling for player combat but for some reason made ship combat titter on a razors edge where if you get to a certain point, there is NO saving your ship.
Bugs all over the place.
The game doesn't need PvE servers, or Arena. It doesn't need to protect new players. They went into a stupid direction for the game and I don't know if they can bring it back. It needs to go back to its roots.
@boomtownboss said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
Thanks to SoT steam release we can finally look at the numbers and boy are they telling. From a peak playerbase of 66K in 3 months the playerbase dropped down to 14K-6K today. Pretty much mirrors their initial release 3 years ago.
Can anyone tell me why Rare cant seem to maintain a player base? At this rate there will be no more SoT next year. So much for 10 year road map.IMO I think they should have listened to the community and made a properly fun and competitive pvp mode for their pvp game. Or a plethora of modes to play. But now they bring this DIY server mode, just a lazy development con of making the community make the game for them. Rare is despicable.
Edit: Forgot to add my sources!
it'll bounce back soon if they get a really good update that happens and it's mostly the players fault they ran the steam players of this game
@mathemoto said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
The main problem is; new players gets destroyed by experienced players and get bored and quit because of it while these experience players choose to PVP due to lack of other stuff to do
This. 10000x this.
@boomtownboss said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
@ntraills I don't think having more game modes would split the player base up. I think having more game modes would build the player base up. There's a very common phrase on these forums. It's "SoT isn't for you" Or "play something else". If SoT had those game modes SoT would be for them and they wouldn't have to play something else. Maybe then SoT could have a player base in the hundreds of thousands. Considering millions of us have the game...
This is what I've found most confusing: most games, let alone media, try to appeal to as large of an audience as possible, so as to maximize revenue—especially in this era of microtransactions.
But Sea of Thieves seems to be the only game that not only doesn't subscribe to that ideology, but has a community actively telling players to not play the game, thus further reducing the game's player base.
But Sea of Thieves seems to be the only game that not only doesn't subscribe to that ideology, but has a community actively telling players to not play the game, thus further reducing the game's player base.
Nope.
Sea of Thieves has a fairly nice community full of mostly good sports. That community also includes a minority of toxic, abusive idiots that enjoy shouting insults at people and another minority of equally toxic (though less abusive) idiots that want the game to change so that it's easier for them to win.
@thagoochiestman said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
@boomtownboss said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
@ntraills I don't think having more game modes would split the player base up. I think having more game modes would build the player base up. There's a very common phrase on these forums. It's "SoT isn't for you" Or "play something else". If SoT had those game modes SoT would be for them and they wouldn't have to play something else. Maybe then SoT could have a player base in the hundreds of thousands. Considering millions of us have the game...
This is what I've found most confusing: most games, let alone media, try to appeal to as large of an audience as possible, so as to maximize revenue—especially in this era of microtransactions.
This is false, products have a target group, a demographic that they try to appeal to and within that group they try and appeal to as many as possible. No game, no product, no media can ever appeal to everyone and anyone that tries to do that will fail.
The target group of Sea of Thieves is the PvEvP playerbase that enjoy both elements, a mix of the two and the challenges it brings with it. It tries to embody the feeling, the content generated by players similar to other games like DayZ, Rust and Eve online without the brutal devastating blows, which it does extremely well.
You want to turn our shared world action adventure into a peaceful fantasy solo experience. It is like asking John Wick to also be the guy from the Note Book, they both loved their wife, but the entertainment they bring is totally different.
But Sea of Thieves seems to be the only game that not only doesn't subscribe to that ideology, but has a community actively telling players to not play the game, thus further reducing the game's player base.
No... you don't understand the concept of a target demographic. You cannot appeal to everyone and no single game will ever be able to do it. You cannot make everyone happy.
The community is actively stating: If you like the concept, if you like the game you are more than welcome to sail the seas with us and we will even help you get on your way, teach you the ropes and sail along with you. Yet the game should not split itself into multiple little fragments destroying the shared world adventure game that it is supposed to be. If you don't want to share the world with us, then leave it... the world shouldn't need to change for you and provide you with a protective bubble. There're enough pirates that gladly join us out on the seas for an adventure.
Catering to you btw. with PVE servers and that type of stuff, might attract some people, but it will also scare off others. Players like myself that will abandon the game, as we do not seek a PVE or PVP choice at the menu screen and it isn't appealing to us. You are asking Rare to bank on those players that abandoned the game, that do not play the game coming back by putting resources and effort into acquiring them... while pushing away some of their core members that have been with them from day one. You cannot make everyone happy, so... should they stick to their own concept and vision which attracted the core members of their community or change it because you don't like it and try to make you their new core?
@thagoochiestman said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
most games, let alone media, try to appeal to as large of an audience as possible, so as to maximize revenue
But Sea of Thieves seems to be the only game that not only doesn't subscribe to that ideology,
No, it.... it really isn't.
@cotu42 This is false. Businesses try to make money and they try to make as much money as possible. Sea of Thieves target demographic is people with money; they aren't solely targeting people who play pirate games, they're targeting gamers. No successful business ever says "no, our product doesn't work for you."
If they were targeting players who only cared about PVP, they would have never put in missions, tall tales, or even the all of the cute animals. It would be entirely PVP, and probably with lower quality graphics, because who cares about graphics when all you want is PVP?
And as an investor in Microsoft, it's infuriating, because who do you think will be the ones spending money on microtransactions? When most of the people on these forums are more "take the loot and run" I can't imagine they're spending any real world money in the game, and ultimately that's what makes game successful nowadays, and increases share-prices—especially when many people don't even have to buy the game with it being on Game Pass.
I dislike Fortnite (even as a fan of BR games) but it's free and it appeals to a much larger audience than just the BR community; that's why it has been so successful. SoT could be raking in money with their Nintendo-esque world but its too unwelcoming to new players to give them a chance to open their wallets.
Sorry to burst bubbles, but every game is just a fleeting joy in a life.
It will never satisfy in the your life the way you want it to, because in the end, it was just entertainment.
Are you not entertained?
No, you aren't anymore. The newness, discovery, attempts, slowly wax old on even a favorite game. You know the game enough, there is nothing to strive for, even if they continue to put new things, it's just "another" new thing. Your pixels, or digital persona is not changing as much as it did at first... you endure timesinks to gain in power to be the top, only for a release to push that bar higher..
Games really only entertain, not give you a feeling of fulfillment from accomplishment.
The game psychologists will lure you into these traps of "necessity" and only when you realize, what little it has to offer are you free to actually enjoy the game.
Especially this game, where the enjoyment, the focus, has always been and should be, the multi player aspect. That touches on the base of humanity, the need to be social.
It is not good for man to be alone.
Games may bridge social barriers, but should not be the source of your joy.
This isn't a game issue, look at rentals/rewatching of movies like avengers plummet, books untouched at libraries, etc. People move on. It's not the items fault. It's people.
Always looking for that to satisfy in the wrong places.
@thagoochiestman said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
If they were targeting players who only cared about PVP, they would have never put in missions, tall tales, or even the all of the cute animals.
That's because they aren't targeting players who only enjoy PvP. If they were targeting players who only want to do the missions completely alone they wouldn't have PvP at all, therefore they must be targeting players who enjoy both surely?
And as an investor in Microsoft, it's infuriating, because who do you think will be the ones spending money on microtransactions? When most of the people on these forums are more "take the loot and run" I can't imagine they're spending any real world money in the game
I've been attacked by ships with all kinds of purchased cosmetics, from ship sets to costumes to the cosmetic weapons. There are lots of "take the loot and run" players that spend lots of real money on this game.
I'm fine with losing arguments, and I'll admit I lost this one. It's just a little difficult to put an idea on the size of the player base if one were to try to do so. I now understand trying to do so is completely irrelevant to the personal experience to the player. It doesn't matter how many people are playing the game, as long as the ones that are playing are enjoying it fully. And its clear that the people on the forums are going to be the most dedicated to the game, as the forum is the heart of the community. So I apologies for being antagonizing and sparking unneeded debate. Lastly; I appreciate Rare for providing a platform for the players to openly speak.
@boomtownboss said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
I'm fine with losing arguments, and I'll admit I lost this one. It's just a little difficult to put an idea on the size of the player base if one were to try to do so. I now understand trying to do so is completely irrelevant to the personal experience to the player. It doesn't matter how many people are playing the game, as long as the ones that are playing are enjoying it fully. And its clear that the people on the forums are going to be the most dedicated to the game, as the forum is the heart of the community. So I apologies for being antagonizing and sparking unneeded debate. Lastly; I appreciate Rare for providing a platform for the players to openly speak.
You’re welcome, everybody has other opinions and wishes! Most important thing is we sail together and have fun, no matter which fun!
The game does not cater solely to PvP players and it doesn't cater to solely PvE players, as its target audience is a PvEvP audience. A mixed, shared open world experience.
It is a large group of gamers that enjoy the trill of PvP and the excitement of going out on a PvE adventure. This is what Rare presented and is what they want to achieve.
Why do we have genres in games, in movies and all that if they can captivate everyone in one? How come nobody made the perfect game yet captivating all players?
It is clear that you have no idea how diverse gamers are if you believe you can make a one fits all approach. As I stated before, I for one would leave the game if it moves to a choice at the menu screen over a shared world experience. What would attract some to the game will repel others, gamers is not a realistic demographic.
By the way, you state I just want to PvP? Yet somehow I soloed most of my way to Athena 10 through those voyages, done nearly every world event solo and yes also went and have stolen treasure along the way. I am a mixed player, I enjoy the freedom to choose how I respond to the sails I see based on the activity, the state of my own session and my mood.
The game provides all the tools you need to play as you please. All you need to do is to utilize them properly and make the right choices. Be the type of pirate you want to be and you are welcome to sail the seas along side us. You want a game for everyone? Yet want to split us up in different worlds? The seas welcomes everyone, yet are you good enough to be the pirate you want to be? By your definition the seas already caters to everyone, a single world for all gamers since it has PvE and it has PvP... (I think there is more to games than just that). So, what is stopping you from just playing the game? You are a gamer and gamers like to play with and against others... and you have the choice to be alone and avoid everyone else if you want. So... technically speaking it already caters to all the types of gamers and isn't that according to you the goal of a company?
@reapinglegion said in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
I honesty think that many of the steam users are old users (like me) that got it from testing it on steam before release or re-bought it just to have it there.
Many of the oldtime SoT'ers is still on the MS Store thingy.
I mean I own the game on Steam and I play on the MS Store version because I find it more stable and consistent on my PC... plus, I could never get my mic working in the Steam version (even though Steam recognised it) and, for me, talking in-game is a massive part of the experience.
@realstyli My steam version works flawlessy, except for the frozen sheit when you tab down to check something else, or else it works like a charm.
I hate MS with all my heart so i was happy that i got to be a STEAM tester and got the game for free on Steam. :)
@idneon No, they still lost players. Just that they fell from like 13 million to 9 million*, significant drop for them but still numbers any game developer would want from their game.
*They stopped posting player figures as they said it was negatively affecting the game.
I take breaks, but I never really leave. I suspect there are others like me, who play a lot for a few months, then play other things for a while, then come back.
Sea of Thieves is great, but while there are a better range of things to do these days, the basic loop of gathering resources and crew and then heading off on adventures in a boat is more or less the same as it has ever been.
That means that the elements which tend to add variety and replayability feel more like different flavours of the same dish than a completely new receipe. Unfortunately, that means that after 1000s of hours, sometimes I just need a change of scenery.
What SoT does, it does very well. No single game can really offer endless variety. There's always going to be limits. When I feel like a nautical or pirate themed adventure SoT is my go to choice.
@boxcar-squidy sagte in Sea of Thieves is outta steam:
I take breaks, but I never really leave. I suspect there are others like me, who play a lot for a few months, then play other things for a while, then come back.
Sea of Thieves is great, but while there are a better range of things to do these days, the basic loop of gathering resources and crew and then heading off on adventures in a boat is more or less the same as it has ever been.
That means that the elements which tend to add variety and replayability feel more like different flavours of the same dish than a completely new receipe. Unfortunately, that means that after 1000s of hours, sometimes I just need a change of scenery.
What SoT does, it does very well. No single game can really offer endless variety. There's always going to be limits. When I feel like a nautical or pirate themed adventure SoT is my go to choice.
That’s what I’m talkin about mate! I hope someday with the Captaincy/Real PL Content Rare can surprise us old Vets :)
Sea of Thieves Passes 15 Million Players, 1 Million Copies Sold On Steam | TechRaptor
Xbox Gameplay Chart: Madden NFL 21, Wasteland 3 & Tell Me Why make their debut appearances
