It was announced during the 2022 Preview Event in January that The Arena mode of Sea of Thieves is shutting down. It surprised players, particularly those who love playing that mode. At the time, one of the reasons given was that only 2% of the player base was regularly playing this dedicated competitive mode. It came to a point that it was becoming difficult to continue releasing technical updates.
That may not be a good enough reason for some players. Fortunately, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe “Three Sheets” Neate shared more about why it has to happen.
In a post, Neate admitted that they are going to receive some criticism that they didn't give The Arena a chance to be a success like that of Adventure. However, considering the number of players that were spending time on this mode, he added that it wasn't popular enough to justify putting their creative efforts into improving it. He went on to say that they do regret that they weren't able to reach a wide audience for The Arena. If that happened, they would have continued developing it.
It looks like the team did learn from their experience working on The Arena. The biggest lesson appears to be that launching a competitive mode needs not only a bigger investment but also a larger creative focus. According to Neate, while it had the same mechanics as Adventure, the experience was completely different.
For the Community
Despite being small, the community has dedicated players and Neate said that the entire team knows that the decision is indeed a huge disappointment. The team is committed to ensuring the efforts of the community are both recognized and rewarded even after The Arena is no longer available.
Everyone who managed to reach or pass Sea Dogs rank 5 on January 27 are rewarded with these Arena ship cosmetics that can be used in Adventure mode:
- The Azure Scout
- The Flaming Jackal
- The Golden Chaser
- The Lucky Rover
- The Regal Hound
The rewards will be distributed when The Arena shuts down on March 10.
Sea of Thieves is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
