Rare is debuting the debut gameplay trailer for Sea of Thieves, the online multiplayer pirate adventure game, live at Microsoft's E3 2016 Xbox press conference.

To sail the seven seas, embracing the life of a pirate is a dream that E3 is keen to deliver with Rare's Xbox and Windows 10 exclusive Sea of Thieves. After debuting at Microsoft's press conference during E3 2015, everyone expected more of the first-person pirate adventure game to be shown this year as well. Rare did not disappoint on expectation, delivering the first gameplay as well as a new cinematic trailer. Rare even went beyond expectations, going onto the Youtube Live E3 stream and showing off another block of gameplay.

As expected, Sea of Thieves is an online multiplayer game in which players will cooperatively and competitively partake in traditional pirate activities. Those include running a ship by weighing anchor, unfurling sails, and laying down cannon fire on other ships, and island life -- though that was left merely teased. Oh, and don't forget drinking ale. There's plenty of ale to be drunk as well. Mostly though, there was a lot of sea battles with other pirate ships.

The relative lack of gameplay shown compared to ways players can interact in basic ways was intentional, however. Rare would later state that the game is still mid-development on many gameplay systems, but that the team is so excited to show the game that everyone wants to show what's reasonable. For example the island adventuring, the customization features, and most important perhaps -- the loot, are still in-development systems. Those features will be shown as soon as they're ready, as Rare intends to be as transparent as can be going forward.

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While the Sea of Thieves gameplay shown yet is not necessarily what the entirety of the game will deliver, Rare didn't want to just leave fans with an idea of what the game will be. As such, Rare put together a cinematic trailer to go along with the gameplay. This cinematic trailer captures what Rare intends Sea of Thieves to grow into between now and its launch, whenever that may be. Rare didn't give any promises on that front, merely stating that the team is working very hard and Sea of Thieves is growing closer to its vision every day.

And the cinematic trailer for Sea of Thieves does promise quite a bit more than what Rare was able to show today. Treasure hunting on land and under the sea, combat between ships using both cannons, pistols, and swords, adventuring on islands into hidden places, and encountering both enemy pirates and supernatural fiends like skeletons. And sprinkled throughout the trailer is gold, treasure chests, and the struggle to control such riches. And that's all layered under the social experience that's at the heart of Sea of Thieves.

Sea of Thieves is an Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive with no currently announced release window, though it is part of Microsoft's Play Anywhere program. Expect more information on Sea of Thieves in the months to come.

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