We've officially entered the month of Sea of Thieves' PS5 release (which takes place on April 30th), and ahead of that launch, Rare has revealed some more of the similarities and differences between that version and the Xbox version.
It's mostly all the same at first glance, with PS5 owners being forced to use a Microsoft account to share their progress across platforms, as well as own a PlayStation Plus subscription in order to play online. The game runs at 4K, 60FPS on PS5, with an optional 1080p, 120FPS performance mode in order to achieve parity with Xbox Series X.
In terms of the differences, Sea of Thieves unsurprisingly takes advantage of the PS5 controller's various features, such as its haptics, adaptive triggers, and built-in microphone and speaker. Interestingly, the exclusive PS5 pre-order and Closed Beta content isn't usable on Xbox, and the same applies on PS5 for some Xbox-specific content:
"Only cosmetics and items obtained through platform-exclusive offers may not be fully equippable across different devices. For instance, the Duke ship cosmetics linked to the Xbox Series X|S launch won't be usable on PS5. Similarly, items like the Ruby Viper cosmetics or Dauntless Adventurer Closed Beta rewards, exclusive to PlayStation pre-order campaigns, won't be equippable on Xbox or Steam."
Some of that exclusive stuff might rub certain fans the wrong way, but otherwise it sounds like everything's pretty much as you'd expect here. And of course, Xbox and PC players will be able to join with PS5 players through the magic of crossplay, although there will be dedicated PS5 servers for those who'd rather stick to one platform.
Looking at the pre-orders, Sea of Thieves is clearly going to be a huge success on Sony's console, and it'll be interesting to see what kind of sales figures it manages to achieve in the coming months. Not bad for a six-year-old game!