Rare explains Sea of Thieves PS5 cross-progression, friend invites and exclusive items

Sea of Thieves developer Rare has shed more light on the game’s various cross-platform features before it sets sail on PlayStation 5.

Sea of Thieves is the fourth of four previously announced Xbox games set to be released on other consoles. Pentiment is currently available on PS5, Switch and PS4, while Hi-Fi Rush is also available now on PS5.

These will be joined by Obsidian‘s co-op survival adventure Grounded, which is coming to PS5, PS4 and Switch on April 16, followed by Sea of Thieves on PS5 on April 30.

Now, in a new blog post, Rare has explained how the PS5 version of Sea of Thives will interact with other versions.

Whether they’ve played the game before or it’s completely new to them, PS5 players will have to sign up to a Microsoft account to play the game.

Those who have already played the game on Xbox or PC will be able to link their Microsft account to their PlayStation account to carry their progress over.

“When linking your PlayStation and Microsoft accounts, any active pirate character becomes playable in the PS5 version of Sea of Thieves,” Rare explains.

“This means that any progress made with that pirate, including Commendations, cosmetics, Twitch Drops and accumulated gold, Doubloons and Ancient Coins, will synchronise across all other platforms linked to that account.”

The only exceptions to this will be platform-specific exclusive cosmetics, such as the Duke ship set which has a large Xbox logo on it.

The PS5 version will have its own exclusive cosmetics, with Rare “currently making plans for a unique sail that will be available to all players during the PlayStation 5 launch period”.

The game’s Friends List will now display players’ Xbox Friends alongside their PSN Friends, allowing them to invite friends from both platforms to join a cross-play session. Players will have the option to turn off cross-play should they only want to play against those on the same platform.

Sea of Thieves looks set to have a successful launch on PS5. Last month the Premium Edition of the game was number one on the PS5 console store’s pre-order page in numerous regions, including the US and UK, with the Standard and Deluxe Editions also featuring in many top tens.