Sea of Thieves has featured an array of quests since its debut back in 2017, from players having to venture to far-off lands in search of treasure or go toe to toe with skeletal warriors. However, one of Rare's newest pirate adventures holds a much deeper sentiment than any added to the swashbuckling adventure before, with the game's most recent update implementing a mission to honor the memory of James White.

White was an apprentice data analyst for Rare who tragically passed away last March. In a recent developer update from the studio, Alex Hunnisett describes him as an incredibly friendly man with "a warm hearty laugh, down-to-earth demeanour and an epic beard that would make even the greatest pirate glow with pride." In celebration of his memory, the studio has added a new Sea of Thieves storyline inspired by White's kindness and generosity.

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Titled The Legend of Glitterbeard, the quest tasks players with uncovering the tale of a larger-than-life pirate by the name of Glitterbeard, finding his scattered journals throughout their adventures. The devs describe the eccentric pirate as a "selfless guide to the players," hoping the additional content will highlight White's kindness and compassion. It looks to be a touching tribute to somebody who poured hours of time into ensuring Sea of Thieves was an entertaining experience for its fanbase, with Hunnisett detailing how White's focus was "always on the players."

The update containing The Legend of Glitterbeard went live yesterday, bringing several new additions to the game. For one, it's sewed the seeds for the Vault Raiders' event on March 25, which will allow players to team up to net themselves some new loot. The Pirate Emporium has also been updated, adding the new Sea of Sands collection, which includes cosmetics items for ships, weapons, and crewmate outfits. There are also brand new emotes, such as the showboater weapon pose and secret coconut emotes.

Rare has also brought a host of major fixes to the experience, such as The Dark Adventurers Blunderbuss having better iron sights aim and crew status nameplates accurately showing when damage has been taken. Players can no longer skip parts of the Shores of Gold map by running out of bounds as well, while footsteps audio should play normally when walking over rocks in Thieves' Haven. Overall, it looks to be a comprehensive update, coming just in time to celebrate another year of Sea of Thieves content. The game has been wracking up a huge playerbase in recent months, celebrating reaching 3 million players yesterday.

Sea of Thieves is out now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: Rare