The wait for Sea of Thieves has been a long one, but it's indicative of the kind of effort that developer Rare is putting into the game to make sure it is as open and playable as humanly possible. What many may not have realized is just how open they are regarding the number of people who can play the game. We always hear about games running at 4K/60 FPS and the like, but the reality is that most people don't have the hardware to achieve that kind of performance.
Fortunately, Sea of Thieves will be playable across a wide variety of computers, and in speaking with PC Gamer, Rare's executive producer Joe Neat revealed that the team is focusing on optimizing the game for low-end hardware. And as such, they will ship the game with the option to lock it at 540p and 15 FPS.
He said:
"We're trying to go as low as possible. We have an idea of what the minimum specs are but aren't quite ready to reveal them. We've actually been inviting people below our current plan for minimum specs into the technical alpha so we can test a number things on the performance side. This game looks so great regardless of the device you're playing on. Of course it's gonna look great in 4K, 60fps but it also looks great at minimum spec because the art style is purposefully timeless."
He continued:
"We've actually added a 540p mode, so you can go below HD. We've also added a 15 fps framerate lock because when we were talking to the community some people were like: I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second. We were like: that's actually really cool, we should support that. And to them go to them and say, oh, we've added that mode for you—it's below our Rare certified min spec, but if you're enjoying the game, why should we as developers knock you for that?"
It's cool to see Rare think about the other side of the fence on this one. While achieving 4K/60 FPS is great and all, this only serves to reinforce their commitment to not having platform being a barrier. We typically think of platform in terms of console vs. PC, but in reality, it encompasses so much more than that. You can't compare a dinky notebook laptop to a beefy desktop rig, but knowing that those two players can end up on the same ship and accomplish the same tasks with experiences that suit their needs is just awesome.
Sea of Thieves will release on Xbox One and PC sometime in 2018.
Source: [PC Gamer]
