Sea Of Thieves Death Penalty Feature Won't Be Implemented After All

Sea of Thieves developer Rare has scrapped plans for a proposed change, after harsh feedback from the community and a realization that their messaging around it was confusing. The "Death Cost" was included as a coming update in a set of release notes, suggesting that the Captain of the Ferry of the Damned would charge a small fee for each death.

The community was not pleased and let Rare know, loudly enough that producer Joe Neate issued a mea culpa and let fans know the Death Cost won't be coming after all.

The release notes have been updated as well. It's careful to note that the plan was never to charge players for PvP deaths, since it would have such an impact on player experience. But it also echoed Neate's point that the team fumbled the messaging.

"We understand that this addition to the release notes was a little confusing, and in the future we will ensure that any future updates we discuss give you a better understanding of how and why we're implementing it," the notes read. "Sea of Thieves is constantly evolving, and any feature we will test, monitor data and listen to your feedback to ensure we're making the right decisions."

That spirit of constant evolution is needed, as we've found it fun but in need of more content so far. The team has shown themselves to be pretty nimble, issuing a comedic "day one patch" just for kicks. You can try swashing some buckles for free with a 14-day trial of the Xbox Games Pass, which will get a new batch in April. Before you heave ho, be sure to check out some tips for landlubbers.