“Platform is a Barrier That Shouldn’t Exist” Rare Says While Testing Crossplay in Sea of Thieves

Recently on Tales from the Tavern Podcast, Rare has revealed that this Wednesday they will hold an internal test for crossplay in Sea of Theives. It will be tested over PC and Xbox One systems.

At Gamescon 2016, Rare's lead deigner Mike Chapman stated that he couldn't confirm cross-platform play, but today it seems he can. In the podcast this week, executive producer Joe Nate said:

"As a game, Sea of Thieves is so suited, I believe, to crossplay as an experience. We’ve talked about this a lot, we’ve always said we want to test it, we want to feel it.

That’s definitely something we want to be rolling out to the community to test. But I sent an email to the team saying how great it was, because it was just seamless. You wouldn’t even notice it – you’re just there, playing with people on PC and Xbox One and that just opens up so many possibilities.

Honestly, it feels so right for our experience. It just knocks down barriers."

Mike Chapman then added:

"I think that last part is something we’re taking to heart through a lot of decisions we’re making across the game. Whether it’s progression, long-term, no barriers in place to play with friends, but also making friends in the game and platform is another barrier that shouldn’t exist."

The first external Alpha test for Sea of Thieves on PC will be arriving quite soon. Rare has said that they'll start with a small pool of testers that will gradually expand, and the invitations will be sent out as the pool grows.

We've seen Phil Spencer try his hand at Sea of Thieves and it looked like a blast.