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Sea of Thieves Update Preps For First FREE DLC

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As fans await the arrival of the first free expansion from Sea of Thieves, Rare has released a brand new update, version 1.07, that went live on Tuesday.

Here are the full patch notes:

Download size:

Xbox One: 400MB
Xbox One X: 400MB
Windows 10: 800MB

XBOX INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

PC INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Features

  • This Seat is Taken – Players now have two crew type options available to them, Open and Closed Crews.
    Open Crews: This option works in the same way you’re used to. For the Galleon, an open crew will match four players together while also replacing players who leave during a game. For the Sloop, two players will be matched together, with a leaving player being replaced when possible.
    Closed Crews: This option allows a single player to begin a game on either a Galleon or a Sloop, allowing friends to join in when they’re available. You can now play with any configuration of players up to the limit on each ship, which is 4 players on the Galleon and 2 players on the Sloop, as well as preventing non-friends from being able to join you. This option replaces the 3 player Galleon and Solo Sloop options in the Main Menu.
    Coming Soon: Additional functionality coming soon for Open and Closed Crews includes the ability to dynamically switch between Open and Closed while in the game, in addition to being able to make a session fully private by preventing friends joining.

Updates

  • Here, take this! – Imagine the scene, skeletons surround your crew, your crew-mate has been bitten by a snake, they have no bananas and there are no resource barrels in sight! Now you can help them CRONCH their way to full health by handing them a banana! This also works with wooden planks and cannon balls. You helpful pirate you!
    Unfortunately this feature is causing an issue and needs to be temporarily removed from Patch 1.0.7 while we investigate further.
  • Who Goes There? – When swimming underwater, gamertag and Player Titles are no longer visible. Now you can #BeMoresneakyPirate!
  • Now in Stock! – Imperial Sovereign Blunderbuss, Pistol, Sails, Hull and Liveries are now available to purchase in the Ancient Isles. They were incorrectly listed as available in Patch 1.0.6.
  • Flintlock Pistol – New sound effects for close fire and reloading the Flintlock Pistol.
  • Icons – Within the clothing chest, the icons to unequip all or select a random outfit have been updated.
  • Health Bar UI – Deciding whether to eat that banana or keep swiping your sword? You’ll notice some changes to the health bar UI, fancy!

Progression & Economy Updates

  • Price Changes – Greedy pirates had overpriced the Castaway Bilge Rat weapons and ship liveries. These have now been reduced. Anyone who purchased items within this set pre-price adjustment will have the difference reimbursed very soon.
  • Strike Gold – As Pirates rank up with all the trading companies, the chances of finding more valuable rewards has been increased. Say good-bye to those Castaway Chests at higher ranks!

Fixed Issues

  • Players should no longer experience details of their pirate (such as hair colour / scars) looking different from their initial selection.
  • Players should no longer experience delayed achievements and commendations from in-game actions.
    During last week’s maintenance window we made improvements to our servers and services which should have resolved both of the above issues. If you are still encountering the above two issues, please log a Support Ticket so we can investigate this further.
  • Resolved issue that sometimes showed riddle landmarks as glowing rocks.
  • Resolved an issue on Old Faithful Isle which could have prevented players from completing riddle voyages.
  • Bounty Captains and Crew will no longer have their names mixed up.
  • Gunpowder Barrels will no longer cause two explosions if detonated when being held by a player.
  • Loaded cannons will no longer intermittently appear unloaded when returning to the ship.
  • Starting Merchant voyages back to back will no longer prevent the reminder to collect crates from appearing.
  • When playing on wide monitors the settings menu UI will no longer have clipping issues.
  • Being on an Order of Souls voyage no longer causes fewer ambient skeletons to spawn.
  • Cannonball, wooden plank and banana crates no longer always spawn empty.
  • Restarting the game will no longer reset the frame rate lock option.
  • Fixed a collision issue on Thieves’ Haven.
  • Equipping the Seadog Hull on a sloop will now match the preview image.
  • Muting all other crews will no longer mute your own crew.
  • The floor texture of the crows nest on the galleon now appears correctly.
  • Resolved a shader issue caused the balcony outside the Captain’s Cabin on the galleon to appear incorrectly.
  • There is no longer a gap between a characters head and the Imperial Sovereign Hat when it is equipped.
  • Restored missing 90 fps frame rate lock option.

Performance Improvements

  • Frame rates will now be more consistent during ship battles, sword fights and Kraken encounters due to visual effect optimisations.
  • Latency has been improved in multiple-ship and skeleton heavy scenarios due to server optimisations.
  • Frame rates can now be locked to 100 FPS.
  • [PC Only] Fixed GPU driver hangs/crashes on certain graphics devices.
  • [PC Only] Resolved bug which triggered Copperbeard error when alt-tabbing.
  • Multiple server crash fixes.
    Further improvements and optimisations for all platforms are ongoing.

Known Issues

  • Some players cannot see their downloadable content in game.
    Once you redeem your code, here is a Support Article that shows you where to find your items in game. If you still cannot find your items in game, please raise a support ticket to log this issue.
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Microsoft Unveils Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit

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Xbox has officially unveiled the Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit which is aimed to help creators reduce energy consumption and measure carbon emissions during game development processes.

The Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit includes resources that include:

  • Power Monitor tools
  • Certification reports
  • Power consumption dashboards
  • Best practices

Ubisoft and 343 Industries were named as early users of the Xbox Developer Sustainability ToolKit with 343 Industries able to reduce energy use by 15% without impacting the player experience at all.

Ubisoft and Xbox are co-developing an energy-efficient eco-mode for users.

You can check out the full report right here.

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Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022

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Epic games

Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.

According to the data:

The numbers

  • Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
  • Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
  • Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
  • Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)
  • Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
  • Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
  • Free games claimed: 700 million
  • Number of new PC releases: 626
  • Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)

Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.

Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.

Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”

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California Judge Dismisses Gamers Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft

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A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.

While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.

It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.

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