As spring progresses ever onward outside the windows, things haven’t slowed down for a moment inside Rare HQ! April was absolutely jam-packed with news and updates, including a PlayStation®5 launch for the very first time in our studio history, so let’s not waste time with any more preamble. From the top, here’s everything you might have missed last month!

Our main update wasn’t due until the very end of April, so we aimed to tide everyone over in the meantime with a Gold & Glory Weekend. What better way to make sure you all had a chance to get your hands on those last Season 11 rewards?

After that, it was just a hop, skip and jump into the launch of PlayStation 5 Early Access! We’d welcomed in a few players on this new platform towards the beginning of April with our Closed Beta, with a whole host of questions answered in an accompanying PS5® FAQ[www.seaofthieves.com], but Early Access marked the first time that these players could take to the seas alongside everyone else. It was a fine sight to see so many crews rolling out a suitable welcome by flying the New Dawn Sails.

With the floodgates open, it was finally time for everyone to take the plunge into Season 12[www.seaofthieves.com]. Bringing new weapons, mechanics and the all-important owls to the seas for the first time, this update marked a major refresh[www.seaofthieves.com] for Sea of Thieves’ sandbox. Have you had a chance to dive in yet? How many times have you been sent to the brig for using the Horn of Fair Winds on your crewmates? Don’t worry, they’ll probably forgive you soon.

There was another milestone awaiting Sea of Thieves in April: the announcement that the game has now welcomed 40 million players[www.seaofthieves.com] since launch! In the six years since our shared pirate haven opened its doors, the team has delivered over 100 free updates to bring you the best experience possible – and it’s been a delight to watch so many pirates find their sea legs, make connections and chase that horizon. Thank you all so much for joining us, whether you’ve been here from the beginning or you’re just setting out on your Maiden Voyage.

Back in the here and now, as the team cooked up a storm of new features for Season 12, it seemed like a good time to share something else that was in the works: the Sea of Thieves cookbook[www.seaofthieves.com]! After giving everyone a little while to properly salivate over all the delightful dishes they’d be able to make, we came back with our latest From Concept to Cosmetic investigative article – this time dedicated to the mighty Frorb[www.seaofthieves.com] – offering everyone a little extra encouragement to complete Season 11 while they still could.

Around then, we realised it was about time for another Community Spotlight[www.seaofthieves.com]. This month, that meant catching up with lauded loot artist Cap’n Axe[www.seaofthieves.com] and finding out how he grew from streaming his pirate-themed Animal Crossing island into a renowned digital artist within the Sea of Thieves community. Give it a read!

As always, we couldn’t let the month go by without a fresh instalment of Sea of Thieves News, this time unveiling what players could expect from Season 12, the reintroduction of six-ship servers and, perhaps most notably of all, Daryl’s new haircut. Production Director Drew also stopped by for another quick chat about game health, which he followed up on later with an expanded State of Play[www.seaofthieves.com] Forum post to answer any lingering questions.

After that, it was full speed ahead into the release of Season 12 and, of course, the accompanying trailers. First, we had the Content Update trailer to lay out all the core features coming with the update, before the more condensed launch trailer landed to make sure even players who didn’t have a full minute to spare could get the highlights. And, for the fashionistas with an eye on the Emporium, we couldn’t forget our usual catwalk of new cosmetics to peruse.

And, in case that wasn’t quite enough trailer content to be getting on with, our PlayStation 5 launch felt like the perfect opportunity for a new overall trailer to show a new generation of players what they were about to get themselves into. Delightful sea-based chaos, mainly.

We really did try to start the month off calmly, but a rare fish sighting and the reveal of the latest Style of Thieves winners put a rapid end to that. We tried to claw it back with some lovely Fairy Tale[www.instagram.com] vibes in the first monthly round of #SoTShot, and even the calm Fancy Fishing screenshots we explored with the next[www.instagram.com], but the chaos simply could not be stopped. Even the swabbies were getting in on it.

Some questionable parking[www.tiktok.com] aside, we did manage to get things back on track eventually with two Community Hub[www.instagram.com] updates to celebrate some fabulous community creations[www.instagram.com]. We even threw in two rounds of Twitch Drops help you earn a few extra goodies through the month, before said questionable parking forced us to make a quick PSA lest we completely drain the Outpost budget.

As you might have expected, we also spent a lot of April getting excited[www.tiktok.com] for the imminent arrival of owl sidekicks and how eager we were to pet them[www.tiktok.com], but that wasn’t all we got up to. Our neverending hunt for loot started poorly[www.tiktok.com] and didn’t improve much from there[www.tiktok.com], so we resorted to elaborate thievery[www.tiktok.com] instead. You’d think we’d have learned in six years. Maybe it’s all the lionfish’s fault[www.tiktok.com]…

And that was April! It’s been a really momentous time for Sea of Thieves lately and we’re endlessly thankful to have you experiencing it with us. Here’s to many more years together. For now, though, remember that you can always find us on the usual channels: Twitter, Facebook[www.facebook.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], TikTok[www.tiktok.com], YouTube, Twitch[twitch.tv], and the official Forums[www.seaofthieves.com] and Discord[www.discord.gg]. For now, it’s about time we returned to the seas[www.tiktok.com]…