Sea of Thieves’ 4 Player Party Limit Has a Specific Purpose
With Sea of Thieves’ release date fast approaching, some gamers are questioning the low party size in the beta. In response, developer Rare (who crated classics like Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye 007,and Perfect Dark) explains their reasoning behind the decision.
According to lead designer Mike Chapman, the small party size was chosen to promote more intimate communication.
“The biggest ship was designed for four,” he said. “We’ve looked at feedback and of course there’s people who want an 8-player ship, a 10-player ship. The thinking there, as with everything in this game, is really intentful.”
“If the two of us were to go out to the pub together with two other friends, you’ve got that intimate relationship, you’re all getting on together. If it becomes six or eight people, you start getting people splintering off and it’s really hard to communicate – four seems like the magic number.”
While the party size won’t be changing for the official release, players will gain the ability to sail a four-person galleon solo. Along their journey, they can use the game’s “Make Friends” emote to put together a crew.
The flipside is that four players can take control of one small sloop, a tactic that Chapman says could be used for surprise attacks.
But with a game like this, many of these features could change or evolve.
“Of course, we’re going to keep looking at this beyond launch”, said Chapman. “There may be other things we’ll do with ships in the future.”