First gameplay from Rare's Sea of Thieves debuts at Microsoft E3 keynote

Rare has shown off gameplay footage for Sea of Thieves, a swashbuckling new IP for Xbox One and Windows 10, at Microsoft's E3 press conference. Rare's studio head, Craig Duncan, called the first-person, multiplayer pirate adventure game the most ambitious game the studio had ever created.

A brief but telling trailer featured several pirate staples, such as sharks, plank-walking, treasure and ship battles. Sea of Thieves will have a co-op focus, with players able to form pirate posses with friends and face them off against rival buccaneers.

As you'd expect, sailing and treasure-hunting looks like it'll play a central role in the game. The gameplay trailer showed players from two separate pirate crews manning their respective ships and preparing them for sail, before the two crews engaged in a full-blown naval battle. By the looks of things, the losers of these battles will have a chance to patch up their vessel after battle before it's claimed by the sea, while the winners get to enjoy a celebratory mug of grog and (presumably) copious yo-ho-ho-ing.

Sea of Thieves will be exclusive to Xbox One and Windows 10 through Microsoft's Play Anywhere programme, which allows players to buy the game for one platform and play it on either. A release window for the game is yet to be announced.

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