Sea of Thieves, the open-world pirate game, is Xbox’s biggest and most eagerly-awaited launch of 2018. This Xbox-exclusive game shows how Xbox is pushing boundaries and creating new gaming experiences that engage with gamers.

A multiplayer, cooperative title, Sea of Thieves is the most inclusive and diverse game Microsoft has ever made, championing camaraderie, trust and friendship, and centered around shared gaming experiences.

To match the anticipation and excitement, Sea of Thieves needed to create a disproportionate amount of attention and engagement globally – across six markets (US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany) – on a modest budget.

In March 2018, Xbox launched the swashbuckling new multiplayer Sea of Thieves with The Quest for The Golden Bananas.

The quest sparked a gold rush with an alternative reality game where 15 fiendishly difficult puzzles needed to be solved in order to win the Golden Bananas, forged by master craftsman in London and valued at $100,000. Why bananas? In the game they are a source of health; in the real world we made them a source of wealth.

We brought an in-game character to life to surface clues via our microsite, sending thousands from all over the world across digital and physical channels.

What began as a competition grew into something greater. A global community working together, proving the value of camaraderie in the vast ocean of toxic online gaming.

The crew that completed the quest were immortalized in game and rewarded with the loot of fruit.

Pirates knew to achieve anything, they needed to work together in a crew where camaraderie and trust is bond. These values have been lost in the ocean of online toxicity in gaming today. Our first strategic decision was to tap into this cultural insight but flip it around to bring out the best of gamers. This aligned perfectly with the premise of the game being all about people playing together and sharing experiences.

We then looked at the game’s target audience. More than any other type of gamer, these players love exploring and immersing themselves in new worlds and engaging in a more deep and meaningful way than the more win-at-all-costs behaviors of gamers who play first-person-shooters.

In short, the strategy was to bring out the best nature of gamers in a more "code of the sea" way than you would typically find for a video game launch.

Total campaign reach of over 650 million

Over 300K visits to The Quest website during the 2 week campaign period.

Over 7.8M video views across owned channels (312% vs objective), with 90% of views organic

Over 300k engagements across social channels (120% vs objective)

Generated global earned media impact driving 100+ articles across 18 markets.

More than 40k players engaged with two or more clues, and more than 10K players solved all 15 clues and entered the final

Sea of Thieves saw more than a million players join on launch day, adding a further million within a week.

Sea of Thieves is the fastest selling new IP of this console generation on Xbox

Sea of Thieves is the best-selling Microsoft Studios first-party title on Windows 10 ever