Sea of Thieves renews its focus on performance and protecting players from cheaters [Video]

In its first developer update video of 2025, Sea of Thieves production director Drew Stevens is granting players a look at what the developers are focusing on in the new year, with a stated goal of improving game performance, game security, and player safety.

Stevens first begins by stating that members of the Rare Ltd. team have been “diverted to a targeted performance bash” in order to make “meaningful game performance” updates. Stevens calls some of the efforts “experimental” and “high-risk,” but he also states his conviction that these efforts will bear fruit even if that means things will be “rocky” ahead.

In terms of more immediate improvements, the January update is bringing with it better networking when approaching player ships and better loading for ship trinkets. Other points of performance improvement being targeted for the year ahead include loading ships in stages to help make bounding to different activities via diving and the hourglass faster, updating how treasures are …