Rare cancels planned Sea of Thieves “death cost” after player complaints

Enlarge / Falling from this height won't lead to a gold penalty, thanks to pushback from fans. (credit: Rare)

As we noted in our initial impressions of Sea of Thieves last weekend, the game is probably going to need some serious changes to be a truly enduring multiplayer lark. Developer Rare is now killing off one of those brainstormed gameplay changes before it comes to pass, canceling a planned "death cost" after intense fan feedback.

Currently, dying in Sea of Thieves only costs the player a little bit of time waiting to respawn. But in a forum post late last week, Rare announced a coming "death cost" feature would add a "small gold fee" to be deducted every time your character dies, upping the stakes and presumably providing additional motivation to avoiding those unplanned deaths. "Rates are dependant on the cause of death, so the more avoidable the death, the less patience the Captain will have when we enable this feature!" Rare wrote.

The response by players in a 19-page thread accompanying the announcement was almost universally negative. Many players worried this kind of additional cost would just encourage griefers to stalk other players, killing them over and over and making it nearly impossible to accumulate in-game gold. Rare clarified in an update that it "never intended to charge players for [player-vs-player] related deaths, as we understand the negative impact this would have on player experience."

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