View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2hQ5I-emRo
Sea of Thieves stared off life as an Xbox exclusive, growing over time into a genuine hit with a large, committed community. Now, in an effort to increase its audience still futher, it's become a key part of Microsoft's multi-platform push. Yes, Rare's pirate co-op title is headed to PlayStation 5, kicking off with an open beta last weekend. So just how good is the port and to what extent does the experience vary between PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series hardware? This has been an interesting project for Digital Foundry, not just because of the new version - but also because we missed out on covering the game in its transition to current-gen hardware, so we also took a look at the game to see how it has evolved up against Xbox One X.
The most interesting place to start is with a look at the brand-new PS5 version. To reiterate, we looked at beta code, and there may be changes when the game launches on April 30th, but it does seem quite polished at the moment. First impressions suggest a game that is very similar to its Series X counterpart - but when we look a bit closer, there are some differences. Shadows look quite a bit different on PS5, with a sharper outline and more visible detail. This holds true both up-close and at a distance, with far away shadows resolving more softly on the Series machine. This is definitely an odd change, and falls in line with a similar tweak found in the PS5 version of Hi-Fi Rush.
There are also some changes to foliage. Most differences in head-to-heads are derived from procedural placement, which actually change on the same console from one run to the next, but that's not to say there aren't some more substantial differences elsewhere. I noticed the PS5 had a consistent edge when it came to draw distances for distant foliage elements, which sometimes appeared on the PlayStation when absent from Series X. Once again, these were very minor differences that you'd need a side-by-side to spot, but there is a clear PlayStation advantage here for some reason, which I don't really understand at the moment. On PC, the PS5 corresponds with max settings, with Xbox falling somewhat behind.
The game's current-gen outings are far from perfect though: Sea of Thieves suffers from odd performance issues on Xbox Series and PS5 machines, which can dampen the experience, while the networking issues from the open beta should be sorted out before the game's April 30th PS5 release, because they were quite intrusive in my testing. Overall though, Sea of Thieves retains its signature charm - and should go down well with PlayStation players.
The game also seems to have some form of global illumination in tow, which helps to flesh out some of the secondary lighting characteristics of each environment. It's far from the high-quality RTGI or baked lighting that we find in some more modern titles, and it does exhibit some pop-in, but the lighting generally looks good considering the game's scope.
Sea of Thieves on PlayStation 5: the next big Xbox multi-platform game tested
Digital Foundry gets to grips with the PS5 port of Sea of Thieves, stacking it up against Series X and PC.
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