Sea of Thieves Is Getting Seasons, Here's What That Means

Sea of Thieves' first-ever season is starting on January 28, and fans are curious what exactly that means for the pirate adventure game. A new blog post from developer Rare explains how this new seasonal model will work, and it's going to bring big changes to the game.

Essentially, the blog post explains that each season will last around three months, and it will bring new features, rewards, and events to Sea of Thieves. Each season will have its own progression track, and players will advance through that track by earning Renown, a new metric that's separate from the game's existing loot system. However, if players want to earn even more loot from completing the 100 levels of Renown, they can purchase the game's Plunder Pass to obtain more cosmetic items. Said Plunder Pass will cost 999 Ancient Coins, or $9.99.

This basically means that the game is switching to the battle pass model that has been embraced by many popular multiplayer games, most notably Fortnite. According to the post, this move to a seasonal progression system is designed to make players feel as though they've accomplished something in every play session, even when all their loot gets swiped by another vessel.

The seasonal model will also introduce Trials, which are themed categories of challenges designed to test different aspects of a player's pirating mettle. Season One will bring a new Merchant Alliance voyage to the game, as well as other events and challenges throughout the coming months.