Until now, Liverpool-based studio Lucid Games has largely been associated with the PlayStation brand, as they developed the PS5 launch title Destruction AllStars as well as several other Sony-published titles, but it seems they’re jumping ship. Today the studio announced they’ll be testing out the grass on the Xbox side of the fence, as they’ll be assisting Rare on future Sea of Thieves development.

　　“We’re excited to announce that we are working with Rare Ltd. on Sea of Thieves! It’s been incredible supporting them on their thrilling pirate adventure and we can’t wait to see where this legendary voyage will take us!”

　　Lucid also mentions that they’re looking to hire more people to work on “exciting projects,” so supporting Sea of Thieves isn’t the only thing they have on the go. Could they play both sides of the fence and also create something for Sony? Seems pretty unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

　　As for what this might mean for the future of Sea of Thieves, it was inevitable that Rare would want to pass the baton eventually. That’s usually what happens with live service games that survive long enough. Rare’s only other announced project is Everwild, which was rumored to be a “real mess” and “optimistically” targeting 2024 last we heard back in 2021. Of course, we’ve now entered 2023, so if things have been going well recently at Rare, maybe they’re ready to ramp up development on Everwild. In which case, handing the Sea of Thieves rudder to Lucid would make sense.

　　Sea of Thieves can be played on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Over the past couple years, the game has transitioned to a more traditional live-service focus on seasonal updates and limited-time “Adventure” events. The game is currently in the midst of its 8th season (get details on that here).