In Sea of Thieves, you will soon get to choose whether you want crossplay between Xbox One and PC or not. A new feature is coming for that.
What is new? In Sea of Thieves, the balance is being adjusted. However, in this case, not only the strength of the weapons is being adjusted but players are also given the option to decide whether they want crossplay between Xbox One and PC. So they can choose to play against each other with a controller versus keyboard and mouse.
This option will then be available to players on Xbox.
Why is the crossplay change coming? An arena update is forthcoming for Sea of Thieves. This is particularly focused on PvP battles in the pirate adventure.
In direct combat against each other, people with controllers often have disadvantages compared to players with keyboard and mouse.
With the optional crossplay, players do not want to be forced into a possible disadvantage. Those who want can keep the option activated and also compete with a controller against people with keyboard and mouse. Joe Neate from Rare explained this in a developer update on YouTube.
How does the feature work? The arena in Sea of Thieves can be selected separately from the open world. These are different instances. In both game modes, you can individually choose whether crossplay is activated or not. It is possible to turn off crossplay for the PvP mode while keeping it activated in the open world.
The player base will be split into two halves: those who only play with a controller and those who want crossplay. However, you are not permanently locked into one option. You can activate or deactivate crossplay depending on your mood.
Keyboard and mouse support coming soon to Xbox: Rare is also working on supporting keyboard and mouse as input devices for the Xbox soon.
This does not mean that you can gain an advantage in crossplay. Because the Xbox systems with mouse and keyboard will be identified by Sea of Thieves as “PC systems” and will not be matched with Xbox controller players when crossplay is turned off. This is part of the big plans with which Sea of Thieves wants to attract players to the MMO in 2019.
