Sea Of Thieves: A Pirate's Life Exists Because Rare Pitched It To Disney
Image: Rare

With the release of Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life (for free) yesterday, it's easy to look back and wonder how it hadn't happened sooner. Adding Pirates of the Caribbean into Sea of Thieves seemed like a perfect match from the get go, but it actually took Rare pitching it to Disney to make it happen.

According to a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Luigi Priore, vice president of Disney & Pixar Games, confirmed that it was in fact Rare that came to them. The collaboration is something that got the team at Disney "excited", adding that working with Rare allowed them to "work with the best in class."

"They've made the greatest pirate game of all time, we have one of the greatest pirate franchises of all time, and they wanted to tell unique stories about Jack and the other characters and to do it in a new way. That passion for both their game and the IP was what got us excited... We're doing something different that wouldn't have been an opportunity for us. So this new strategy allows us to work with the best in class."

He later said that the integration of Pirates of the Caribbean "made too much sense" not to happen, but that doesn't mean a growing trend of integrating Disney IPs into games will now be overly commonplace.

"Sea of Thieves is an incredible example of [really high quality execution or opportunity]. That was one we looked at and said, 'We need to do this.' That doesn't mean we're going to go try to do that with every piece of IP and integrate into every existing experience that there is. But that was something we weren't going to turn our backs on. The marriage that was perfect between Pirates and Sea of Thieves, it just all made too much sense."

The expansion launched as part of Sea of Thieves' third season yesterday, and fans online seem to really be embracing the crossover. It's added some pretty elaborate and lengthy quests, allowing Pirates of the Caribbean fans to live out their wildest fantasies.

Whether anything else comes from this collaboration remains to be seen, but this is a fantastic step for Sea of Thieves (especially as a free feature) and opens up the realms of possibility to many more interesting ideas.

Have you checked out Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life yet? Drop us a comment and let us know.

[source gamesindustry.biz]