Sea of Thieves Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S upgrades revealed

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Loads faster, looks better

Sea of Thieves
(Image credit: Rare)

The Sea of Thieves Xbox Series X upgrades have been confirmed by Rare, and they'll make the open ocean an even lovelier place to spend your time.

The upgrades laid out on the official Sea of Thieves Twitter account detail the specific improvements you can expect to see if you're playing on Xbox Series X as well as on Xbox Series S. Sea of Thieves running on either console will offer improved load times and 60 frames per second performance, while Xbox Series X will run at 4K resolution and Xbox Series S at 1080p.

The improvements line up neatly with the Xbox Series X backwards compatibility impressions we got from some early hands-on time with the console. Here's some of what GR's Josh West had to say about his experience:

"Be it old favourites or games I had once abandoned because the uneven framerate made the game feel sticky to play, all have been improved – they play better than ever. Now, with thousands of games in backwards compatibility I certainly can't say if that's true for everything, but my time with some of the most demanding games of the Xbox One generation has been a net positive. I wouldn't usually begin a new generation dipping back into the last, but the Xbox Series X is casting the Xbox One era in a brand new light."

Sea of Thieves was first released back in March 2018, but Rare has kept the game steadily growing since then. Most recently it celebrated the Halloween season with an update that added skeletal pets to collect (in a fun way, not a sad way) and a set of new voyages to embark upon.

If you're planning on jumping aboard when the next generation arrives, make sure to check out the new Sea of Thieves Pirate Academy and learn the ropes while you wait.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.