Your days of motion-induced seasickness are over: Sea of Thieves will now run at 120 frames per second on the Xbox Series X with a butter-smooth flow.
The visual upgrade was announced in a post on Xbox Wire, where it outlined some of the major changes to Rare’s pirate email. These changes include a whole slew of brand new lost voyages and 100 levels of premium rewards. The update is free for all players with Xbox Game Pass and in Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Windows 10 PC and Steam.
The catch of this is that the game will only run at 120 frames per second on Xbox Series X in 1080p – not full 4K – and in an extensive FAQ, Microsoft says that some TVs may not support both HDR and Performance Mode, which means that you need to turn off HDR manually.
That said, if you want to see the ocean in all its glory, 4K / 60 with HDR is still an option if you prefer, thanks to the update that came into play in November when Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S first launched.
Expanding the horizon for higher frame rate console games
Since the consoles were launched a few months ago, we have not seen many 120fps Performance Mode games – at least not as much as we thought Microsoft would make 4K / 120 such a selling point for the console.
The addition of a performance mode for Sea of Thieves does not completely fix the situation, but it is definitely a push in the right direction, especially as the game is so widely available via Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft’s next big first-party high-frame rate game, Halo Infinite, will only come out later this year, so make sure you move on your adventure on a smooth sail, and that you do not go straight through the wind.