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Rare's Craig Duncan: ''we still have a super successful ongoing service-based IP in Sea of Thieves that still has millions of people playing it''

Deleted member 57361

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I don't believe that it has millions of people playing monthly, but the game is much better than release. I always play it again when there's something new. With Death Stranding, it was my favorite IP this gen. I just wish Rare gives more focus and makes the loot more interesting in the game, add new enemy types and more tall tales.
 
Kilgore

Kilgore

Member
Feb 5, 2018
3,538
Dachhase said:
on steam that's like 5k people playing, i'd assume it's less on xbox and w10. the playerbase must be huge and all play at different times if they amount to millions.
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Concurrent players is not the same as MaU, and we really don't know what are the numbers of Xbox and W10 combined. But hey, if people don't believe Rare that's ok, even if they give figures they can still lying. I don't find strange at all that the game can have more than 1 million MaU.
 
PopcornMegaphone

PopcornMegaphone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,158
There's some really sad people in this thread. I don't play the game myself, but SoT is consistently in the top 5 Gamepass games played. The number is completely believable.
 
Kilgore

Kilgore

Member
Feb 5, 2018
3,538
Funnily enough, people said at launch that the clear sign of the success of the game would be the support from Rare and Microsoft, and here we are more than a year and a half later, having monthly updates with the game being present on X019, but Rare is lying claiming the game is succesful.

Microsoft trying to save face I guess.
 
Bugalugs214

Bugalugs214

Banned
Nov 26, 2017
1,686
Rare's Craig Duncan "Your irl mates, cat, dog and guy over the back fence are prob playing something shitty instead"


Back to op though I dearly love Rare and am glad they try new ip's.

I played it a bit last week after getting my season thing done on Destiny 2, now up to 46 gold traders, 37 for souls and 36 for merchant. I saw the game updating just before so I'll try it out tomorrow!
Oh yeah is disabling crossplay a thing yet?(I'm a xbox controller player) I can't get a straight answer from Google.

On another note why do some posters continually get away with shitting up xbox threads with concern trolling?
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
21,467
There's nothing odd about SoT possibly having millions of people playing the game every month. Game Pass makes sure there's always a heavy influx of new users trying out games, major updates every other month means a lot of fans who don't play it daily will also jump back. And well, with a service like Game Pass, you may have sold your copy long ago but if you just need to try the new update real quick, here's a 1$ deal for 1-3 months and bam, let's try it out. What we know of numbers on Game Pass titles is rather impressive, it's too bad people want to shitpost the thread into oblivion by implying that since they aren't playing it nobody is. Roblox also gets dozens of millions of players every month, but the discussion for it doesn't happen on Era so you may not have known. Now you know.
 
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SuikerBrood

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,490
Bugalugs214 said:
Rare's Craig Duncan "Your irl mates, cat, dog and guy over the back fence are prob playing something shitty instead"


Back to op though I dearly love Rare and am glad they try new ip's.

I played it a bit last week after getting my season thing done on Destiny 2, now up to 46 gold traders, 37 for souls and 36 for merchant. I saw the game updating just before so I'll try it out tomorrow!
Oh yeah is disabling crossplay a thing yet?(I'm a xbox controller player) I can't get a straight answer from Google.

On another note why do some posters continually get away with shitting up xbox threads with concern trolling?
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I believe you can only disable crossplay in the competitive mode.
 
upinsmoke

upinsmoke

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,566
Good for them they still have an active player base. Maybe I tried it at the wrong time but along with SoD 2, SoT is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played but at least it only cost a quid on gamepass for me to expeirence it.
 

Deleted member 2254

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Oct 25, 2017
21,467
I personally wasn't the biggest fan of the game, but that's mainly because I tend to play solo, if anything with a single friend, and this game clearly gives the best experience with a dedicated group that gives it time and effort. Gotta say that, however, while some of the things still don't convince me (like players going down with 1-2 bullets which heavily favours griefing), the game expanded so damn much. Just a year ago a travel on the sea had maybe one or two "odd" event that could interrupt it, now with all kinds of sea creatures, side missions, haunted ships and whatnot it feels a lot different than it used to. I'm glad Rare stuck around and decided to throw in more content and variety, because what's in right now is fascinating in many ways. I don't like all of it, but it's good enough to try it from to time again. Me and my fiancé are slowly getting back into it again, think we might just put more hours into it than ever before this next weekend.
 
dodmaster

dodmaster

Member
Apr 27, 2019
2,548
I actually want to go play SoT now. Backlog being as immense as it is, I just want a game to switch off and have fun with, after blasting Apex Legends for so long.
 
Jiraiya

Jiraiya

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,288
Hilarious seeing people scoff at a Microsoft ip being successful 😂

Camisado said:
Heaven forbid I speak on my personal experiences on a forum. Hang on, let me activate my hive mind to connect with ALL GAMERS simultaneously.
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I mean...don't use that anecdotal evidence as an overall metric and you won't get those replies.
 
Thorrgal

Thorrgal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,319
How many millions? For how long? Do they download it on GP and try it for an hour, or do they keep engaged in the games for hours?

Why no numbers/definite data?
 
Windu

Windu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,630
There are 7 billion people in the world. I think its likely that someone won't have friends that play a game that only has millions playing it.

Anyway, good for Rare. I still play it off and on. One day, I'll make pirate legend. I'll probably be 100.
 
RedSparrows

RedSparrows

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Feb 22, 2019
6,491
Unique and bold, if also pretty divisive, game is doing well. People should be happy for it even if they don't like it. It's called variety.
 
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SuikerBrood

SuikerBrood

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Jan 21, 2018
15,490
Thorrgal said:
How many millions? For how long? Do they download it on GP and try it for an hour, or do they keep engaged in the games for hours?

Why no numbers/definite data?
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We don't know. It's a success for them, with over 18 months of full support by 100+ developers. I guess, as a player, that's the most important thing to know.

We'd all like more information. For sure.
 

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Thorrgal said:
How many millions? For how long? Do they download it on GP and try it for an hour, or do they keep engaged in the games for hours?

Why no numbers/definite data?
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These posts baffle me. This is an interview first of all, not a press release to boast an achievement. Craig Duncan mentioned there's millions of players playing, that's it. Should he have took out his tablet, look at the server stats and say "currently we have 56,323 people online, the month already had 1,823,499 different users logged on"? Should he have took out the calculator app and calculate the average hours spent by those players on the game? Ask for Microsoft an exact estimate at that moment in time about the retail and digital numbers, along with how many people played it on Game Pass that month?

It's one of many things said in the interview, the meaning was that it's still doing well for them. And it has to be, because they are keeping 100+ people on it every month. Just think of the money the wages alone of that many people take away and you can already imagine the money they make from the game every month far exceeds that. Since there's not that much in terms of microtransactions atm, that can't be through a couple hundred whales having put down 5 figures on the title. The game is still easily in the top 50 most played on Xbox by the way, rising up considerably every time a major update or a limited event drops (as it is with many games).

I really don't understand what information people are seeking exactly.
 
m23

m23

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,417
I wish my friends and I got into this game, we just never have the time to sink into a game like this. Congrats to Rare on the success though.
 
JayWood2010

JayWood2010

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Oct 27, 2017
3,120
People wonder why Xbox fans say Resetera is not a good place to discuss Xbox related content lol

Congrats to Rare and the team. Sea of Thieves has turned out to be a great game over time. Its one of those games that just kind of shows that some games need to get updated review scores. Whereas scores are stagnant, games are not, and ever-changing.
 

Phoenix944

Member
Oct 28, 2017
925
One the most enjoyable multipayer games I've played that's for sure. You have to play it with people you know though
 

Sams88

Member
Oct 9, 2019
221
Klobrille said:
So many "I can't accept that Sea of Thieves is successful" replies lol

Excited to play the new Tall Tale today!

Oh and of course congrats to Rare & team. The game allowed massive growth at the studio and that's always a wonderful thing.
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That's a little disingenuous. The 'millions' clearly refers to players who've tried the game. Launch week(s) aside concurrent player numbers have never exceeded the tens of thousands.

Sea of Thieves has been a successful IP launch. But we don't need to parrot PR, or in this case, an informal interview. When people get the wrong end of the stick.
 
Klobrille

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Oct 27, 2017
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Sams88 said:
That's a little disingenuous. The 'millions' clearly refers to players who've tried the game. Launch week(s) aside concurrent player numbers have never exceeded the tens of thousands.

Sea of Thieves has been a successful IP launch. But we don't need to parrot PR, or in this case, an informal interview. When people get the wrong end of the stick.
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No one here is talking about "concurrent".

I can't see why Sea of Thieves shouldn't have 2+ Mio players (aka "millions") a month when a game like FH4 is at 4+ Mio monthly.

FH4 is at 12+ Mio players overall, Sea of Thieves at 8,6+ Mio.

Sea of Thieves is seeing quite a lot of popularity spikes dependent on updates and Twitch/Mixer activity, is in the Game Pass Top 5 since release basically. I fail to see why I should give more believe in "but none of my friends is playing the game" posts as opposed to a statement by an Xbox Studio Head.
 
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SuikerBrood

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Jan 21, 2018
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Sams88 said:
That's a little disingenuous. The 'millions' clearly refers to players who've tried the game. Launch week(s) aside concurrent player numbers have never exceeded the tens of thousands.

Sea of Thieves has been a successful IP launch. But we don't need to parrot PR, or in this case, an informal interview. When people get the wrong end of the stick.
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Who is talking about concurrent? I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility for SoT to have 1 million people playing the game per month.
 
Camjo-Z

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Oct 25, 2017
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I can't stand Rare's constant lackadaisical approach to their old IP. I don't have a problem if Rare themselves don't want to revisit the past, even if I do find it annoying when Craig Duncan gets out the strawman and acts like making new installments in old franchises means doing endless rehashes of NES and Spectrum games. Sequels are not inherently bad, most of the best games ever made are sequels, but it's certainly true that Rare has always focused on moving forward with new ideas.

What I have a problem with is when fans absolutely CLAMOR for certain games to make a return, they hear and acknowledge the feedback, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing with it. Are you telling me that after 11 years we still can't get Banjo-Threeie? Absolutely no one at Rare or any other competent dev studio wants to work on what is basically the platformer equivalent of Half-Life 3?

I'm grateful for KI and Battletoads but it's just depressing that a company that made some of the greatest video games of all time rarely ever wants to acknowledge the value of them. MS is fine with pumping out Gears 5, Halo 6, and Forza 7 but god forbid we get consistent sequels to popular Rare IP.
 
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Thorrgal

Thorrgal

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Oct 26, 2017
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SuikerBrood said:
We don't know. It's a success for them, with over 18 months of full support by 100+ developers. I guess, as a player, that's the most important thing to know.

We'd all like more information. For sure.
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Yes, but that quote doesn't mean anything and doesn't add anything to your experience as a player in any way.

It's just (bad) PR speak so I wonder, why?

Just tell us what you said "The game is a succes, we're committeed to keep on supporting it etc" They stopped giving us real data, maybe it's time they stop giving us faux data as well.

I mean come on, is ridiculous...MS is doing much better now so just give us sales numbers again. Or not, but then don't talk about millions this, millions that, this one sold better than the other one, which we also don't know how much it sold, and we don't know either if they mean at launch or first week or what.

Why are they hiding the numbers? Makes me nuts lol
 

Deleted member 18951

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Oct 27, 2017
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Thorrgal said:
Yes, but that quote doesn't mean anything and doesn't add anything to your experience as a player in any way.

It's just (bad) PR speak so I wonder, why?

Just tell us what you said "The game is a succes, we're committeed to keep on supporting it etc" They stopped giving us real data, maybe it's time they stop giving us faux data as well.

I mean come on, is ridiculous...MS is doing much better now so just give us sales numbers again. Or not, but then don't talk about millions this, millions that, this one sold better than the other one, which we also don't know how much it sold, and we don't know either if they mean at launch or first week or what.

Why are they hiding the numbers? Makes me nuts lol
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About the only thing I agree with in your post :)
 
Prine

Prine

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Oct 25, 2017
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Camjo-Z said:
I can't stand Rare's constant lackadaisical approach to their old IP. I don't have a problem if Rare themselves don't want to revisit the past, even if I do find it annoying when Craig Duncan gets out the strawman and acts like making new installments in old franchise means doing endless rehashes of NES and Spectrum games. Sequels are not inherently bad, most of the best games ever made are sequels, but it's certainly true that Rare has always focused on moving forward with new ideas.

What I have a problem with is when fans absolutely CLAMOR for certain games to make a return, they hear and acknowledge the feedback, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing with it. Are you telling me that after 11 years we still can't get Banjo-Threeie? Absolutely no one at Rare or any other competent dev studio wants to work on what is basically the platformer equivalent of Half-Life 3?

I'm grateful for KI and Battletoads but it's just depressing that a company that made some of the greatest video games of all time rarely ever wants to acknowledge the value of them. MS is fine with pumping out Gears 5, Halo 6, and Forza 7 but god forbid we get consistent sequels to popular Rare IP.
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Cant be said enough. Thanks.
 
Dogui

Dogui

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,809
Brazil
Devs should give an effort on showing precise data, otherwise people will obviously interpret this as millions of people that started Sea of Thieves at some point rather than millions of active players. Unless of course it's true and everything is a PR stunt to make SoT looks like it's more popular that it really is.

Anyway, never actually played SoT but i'm pretty interested to eventually tackle it. Let's hope it survives long enough for that.
 
chirt

chirt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,692
I believe they have millions of players still. It's a dope game, I should go back and play it again.
 
MCD

MCD

Honest Work
Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,801
Camjo-Z said:
I can't stand Rare's constant lackadaisical approach to their old IP. I don't have a problem if Rare themselves don't want to revisit the past, even if I do find it annoying when Craig Duncan gets out the strawman and acts like making new installments in old franchises means doing endless rehashes of NES and Spectrum games. Sequels are not inherently bad, most of the best games ever made are sequels, but it's certainly true that Rare has always focused on moving forward with new ideas.

What I have a problem with is when fans absolutely CLAMOR for certain games to make a return, they hear and acknowledge the feedback, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing with it. Are you telling me that after 11 years we still can't get Banjo-Threeie? Absolutely no one at Rare or any other competent dev studio wants to work on what is basically the platformer equivalent of Half-Life 3?

I'm grateful for KI and Battletoads but it's just depressing that a company that made some of the greatest video games of all time rarely ever wants to acknowledge the value of them. MS is fine with pumping out Gears 5, Halo 6, and Forza 7 but god forbid we get consistent sequels to popular Rare IP.
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They saw the success of Crash and Spyro and did nothing.

They included Banjo in Smash and still nothing for fans.

Honestly this company is hard ass trolling at this point.
 
DrDeckard

DrDeckard

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,109
UK
Soulflarz said:
Millions yet idk a single person online or irl whos mentioned it in well over a year

Unless thats the most dedicated random community ever, sure.
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Do you know friends who play Dota. Lol. Apex legends. Fortnite. Minecraft. Pubg. Warcraft. War frame the list goes on and on?

Theres shitloads of million playing games out there.
 
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