Sea of Thieves Arena PvP update will add option to switch off Xbox/PC cross-play

Sea of Thieves kicked off 2019 with a reinvigorated player base, now Rare's attention is turning towards capitalising on that with more expansions. The game's first big update of the year, dubbed ‘Arena', will bring competitive PvP to the game, but those worried about cross-platform advantages between Xbox and PC will be able to opt out of cross-play.

Microsoft has been pushing for PC and Xbox cross-play with all of its new first-party games. This includes Sea of Thieves, which currently pools PC and console players together by default. This wasn't an issue before, as Sea of Thieves wasn't necessarily a competitive title. However, the Arena expansion will change that, as it is purely focussed on increasing the game's pace and battling it out on the high seas against other players.

As part of Rare's most recent developer update, the team announced that as part of the Arena expansion update, players will be able to toggle cross-play on or off. That way, those playing with a controller can opt to only compete against other players using the same input. This should remove any concerns about keyboard/mouse users having an inherent advantage due to swifter controls, higher frame rates and more precise aiming abilities.

Sea of Thieves' Arena expansion currently doesn't have a final release date, but the game will be part of next week's episode of Inside Xbox. We'll be expecting to hear about the launch then.

KitGuru Says: Sea of Thieves continues to be a lot of fun. Cross-play for PvP won't be switched off by default, but giving console-only players the option seems sensible given that this is intended to be a competitive game mode. Are any of you planning to try Sea of Thieves again when the new update launches? 

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