With the help of Xbox Games Pass, Sea of Thieves hit a three-month sales target in just one day. As noted in a report by US Gamer (via via Gameindustry.biz), Sea of Thieves’ developer, Rare, reported launching on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass was a key factor in hitting the game’s sales targets early. Rare producer Joe Neate commented on Sea of Thieves’s success:
“We beat all of our sales numbers that we had planned. We had a target to hit by the end of June, which we hit in day one of sales. It was fascinating because we were the first [Xbox first-party offered day one on Game Pass]. And, like, for the most part you kind of never want to be the first. You want to learn from someone else on things like that.”
While Rare declined to discuss specific sales numbers achieved, we already know that Sea of Thieves reached 2 million players in its first week. Another big reason for the big numbers is that Sea of Thieves gave players a free ten-day game trial when they signed up for the Xbox Xbox Game Pass.
Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s game subscription service that is available for $9.99 a month. Xbox Game Pass is is not included in the price of an Xbox Live Gold membership, which is another $9.99 a month. It would be great if Microsoft could find a way to combine the two to create the ultimate console experience with Xbox One.
