Several days ago, the video game developer Rare announced that it was going to impose a "Death Cost" feature in Sea of Thieves that would charge players a fee for dying in the title, with each death costing a certain amount of gold – that is, the in-game currency – depending on the nature of how one's character died. This caused a considerable amount of uproar among the game's fan base, which has now led to the feature being cut from inclusion in the action-adventure game entirely.

This much was announced by Rare executive producer Joe Neate, with the developer revealing the cancellation of the Death Cost in Sea of Thieves by way of a tweet. After stating that the proposed feature is now going to be dead on arrival, Neate mentions how he and the company didn't properly reveal how it would have worked, which resulted in Rare's decision to remove it, and he thanked players for their "honest feedback and discussion" in regards to the matter.

Without a doubt, the news of Rare's decision to not include the Death Cost feature in Sea of Thieves will likely be met with resounding cheers, as lots of players will obviously be more than happy to learn that they won't be charged any gold for taking a ride on the Ferry of the Damned. Should the gameplay element have been implemented, though, one could argue that Rare might have been able to incorporate it in a meaningful way that's similar to how other titles that take away in-game currency for dying. For instance, Grand Theft Auto 5 bills players for their stay at a hospital once they've been killed and revived, which certainly makes sense in context.

At any rate, with Sea of Thieves players having to use gold as a means to purchase loot, it's understandable as to why many would be up in arms against the Death Cost being implemented in the pirate-themed adventure game. And with Rare now having resolved to not move forward with the Death Cost at fans' behests, one can only hope that the studio now turns its attention more fully toward fixing such problems inherent in the gold reward and reputation system.

Sea of Thieves is available now for PC and Xbox One.

Source: Joe Neate – Twitter