What does Rare do if Sea of Thieves doesn't chart top 10 NPD?

Like horizon dawn and you know games like that were in the top 10

do they go alright on to the next game or do they continue working sea of thieves whats their gameplan you think?

Their an expensive studio in europe, they've been around forever they havent' really made any big hitting evolutionary games.

Microsoft hooked them up and this is on Rare to do good here imo if it doesn't chart thats total trash imo even horizon zero dawn was in the top 10 so was a few other playstation games.

Are they gonna blame game pass and say taht shrunk physical sales or do they just go meh we don't care how much we sell.

That thread read like you shat it out.

I don't know. Maybe Rare should go back to Nintendo if Sea of Thieves flops?

Nothing

It probably won't post in the top ten if everyone gets it on game pass... Can't see that counting as a sale. But I'm sure MS will let us know how many people played it.

I imagine its performance will be measured not by traditional sales metrics but by its ability to recruit users and activity to the Microsoft Game Pass, same way Netflix is stacking the deck with originals to keep engaged subscribers.

It's a smarter approach IMO, given how online involved this game is then this will help keep the community strong. As one of those games better played with friends, there's always a worry that some people you play online with will be interested in paying full price, but as a game offered through a nominal fee like what Game Pass offers, it might be a more likely scenario to get friends interested in trying new games together, not just for Sea of Thieves, but other Microsoft exclusives going forward.

I also imagine this takes some pressure off Rare to succeed commercially, even critically well celebrated games don't mean much if people don't buy them.

But, then again, not having a traditional sales model might mean their performance for what Microsoft expects of them might be measures through the ability to get people to engage in microtransactions... and, well, the Internet loves ripping on game makers for trying to make money like they are greedier than any other major business. Man what I wouldn't give to see the internet lose their shit the same way to pass stuff like meaningful healthcare reform, gun control, criminal justice reform, whatever, even something so not important like protesting price of movie tickets and concessions. But, whatever, priorities.

@davillain-: Exactly. Have Rare go back to Nintendo. Switch with a good Killer Instinct and a new Battletoads would be epic.

It won’t flop. It’ll sell a million within the first few weeks.

In all likelihood, they close shop. MS seems like they’ll pull the plug and either shut it down or sell of its assets to an interested financier (perhaps existing staff but I doubt it). They may simply opt to reorganize and shuffle staff around, effectively ending Rare without closing its doors.