In what could be both a delightful turn of fate and a worrying sign of things to come, depending on where you stand, Sea of Thieves appears to be leading the pack on PlayStation Network, as the #1 best-selling pre-order on the platform in the US.
This information comes from Benji-Sales on Twitter, a video game industry analyst who focuses on sales information, social metrics, data summaries, and other pertinent bits and bobs. Microsoft’s Sea of Thieves, which was recently announced to be coming to PlayStation 5 alongside Pentiment, Grounded, and Hi-Fi Rush, is thus making waves on the very platform that Xbox competes against. Quite the thing to wrap one’s mind around, really. Granted, there are a few reasons as to why this is the case at this time.
PlayStation users seem to like Sea of Thieves
First of all, one would be hard-pressed to argue that Sea of Thieves isn’t a good game. Sure, it had a somewhat rocky start back in 2018, but the developer Rare has since built the experience up into something truly remarkable and, most importantly, positively loaded with meaningful content. It is, by all measures, one of the best pirate-themed games of our time.
Secondly, there’s that other, quadruple-A pirate game that everyone used to talk about, and which is proving to be a bit less than many players thought it would be. Indeed, Skull and Bones is decidedly not an AAAA game, and it’s not a huge surprise that people would be eager to play something adjacent to it (but also better).
Finally, there’s the simple fact that Sea of Thieves release on PlayStation 5, which is due to release on April 30, marks the biggest platform departure Xbox and Microsoft have made since the company started releasing its first-party titles on day one on PC. As was the case when Sony began considering PC a valuable source of revenue, people are interested in experiences that they previously couldn’t get, and Sea of Thieves‘ PlayStation release is a huge deal in this regard.
Even though there are some negative comments disparaging Xbox under Benji-Sales’ Tweet, Sea of Thieves‘ rapid-fire success on PlayStation is exactly what Microsoft and Xbox must’ve hoped for, as the companies’ brands and IPs penetrate deeper into an all-new, previously unused and inaccessible platform. Of course, one could argue that having a variety of Xbox games on PS5 reduces the value of Xbox as a brand, but multiplatform is clearly the way forward for every major gaming company. Make no mistake: for the current Xbox, this is a big win, and if it repeats, it may well inform the company’s gaming strategy for times to come.
