Sea of Thieves has been one of Xbox’s most popular live service games, and for good reason, too: it’s filled to the brim with swashbuckling adventures and secrets to be found on the countless islands included in it. Like many other live-service titles, Sea of Thieves has only gotten better with age as Rare has ironed out issues and worked on perfecting the game’s core loop. During today’s Xbox Showcase that kicked off Gamescom, it was announced that the game would be doing a crossover with Borderlands to deliver the Mayhem ship set.

The Sea of Thieves/Borderlands crossover is exciting for fans of both series and makes perfect sense as they have a similar goofy tone that’s found throughout the entirety of both games. While that in itself is cause for celebration in both fandoms, the crossover is a sign that Sea of Thieves has truly taken the plunge into following the Fortnite model of being a live service game full of transmedia crossovers. Given the success of Sea of Thieves, the game is starting to prove that Fotnite­-style crossovers might be able to work in any context as long as the game in question is good.

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The Limitless Potential of Live Service

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Live service titles have proven themselves to be one of the most successful video game business models in recent years. With the rise of live service games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone, it’s clear that the model is not only appealing to fans because of the constant content updates, but it’s also highly lucrative for the studios behind each title. The live service model isn’t just reserved for free-to-play shooters, however, as games like Sea of Thieves and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout have also seen success despite their non-shooter gameplay.

Sea of Thieves has been around for quite a while, however, meaning it’s likely to keep its popularity and continue growing as more and more major updates come to the game. That’s part of the magic of the live service title: it’s able to do just about anything that the studio behind it wants as new content and updates are constantly in development.

This means that a game like Sea of Thieves is going to be far different in a year than it is right now, which opens itself up for seemingly limitless possibilities. That model seems to work wonders for the likes of an easily approachable game like Fortnite, but the fact that it can also thrive in Sea of Thieves means that it’s likely able to thrive in just about any environment.

Crossovers Continue Drawing Fans In

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The other side of the Fortnite coin is one that not every live service game can pull off: The crossover. Titles that take themselves relatively seriously like Apex Legends tend to skip this part of the model. However, as Sea of Thieves is a light-hearted pirate adventure game, crossovers seem to fit right in. With the recent Pirates of the Caribbean crossover as well as the Borderlands one, it’s likely that the game is going to continue doing deals with other IPs.

These sorts of crossovers are excellent ways to bring in more fans and get fans who’ve dropped off with the game to come back for more. At the end of the day, although Sea of Thieves is definitely popular, it has less mass appeal when compared to the likes of Fortnite, but still proves that the model can work based on its continued growth and success.

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

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