Sea of Thieves' Death Tax Aborted Following Player Mutiny

“But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death ~~and taxes~~.” — Some pirate

Rare’s parley with Sea of Thieves players who objected to the proposed ‘death tax’ (a gold fee deduction whenever you meet an untimely end) has come to an abrupt conclusion: the feature has been dumped before implementation. Rare executive producer, Joe Neate, updated the millions of seafarers via Twitter:

The objections were raised on several grounds. A Reddit thread dedicated to the subject reveals players were concerned the death tax would make Sea of Thieves unnecessarily tedious, harm the progression of solo players, and even create a loophole for griefers to abuse the system. Another player wondered what the consequences would be if a penniless pirate kicked the bucket. Such feedback prompted Rare to withdraw the feature and begin internal discussions over its next steps. Neate said there will be “more to share later this week”, and we’ll make sure to keep you informed on the latest developments.

Xbox head Phil Spencer recently defended Rare’s IP from a sea of criticism which took aim at Sea of Thieves’ apparent lack of content. Spencer explained that Sea of Thieves was designed as a “high quality accessible game” and that Rare has worked hard to guarantee “stong post-launch support”.