Rare Kills Off Proposed Death Tax in Sea of Thieves

Rare, the developers of the recently released Sea of Thieves, are keeping their community well aware of their ideas and plans with the game post-launch. One of the first proposed ideas was a death tax. Now the company has officially retracted the idea, after heavy community criticism.

The death tax idea was as simple as it sounds: When you die, you pay an in-game monetary fee. PVP related deaths would waive the fee, while the actual price would range based on how you died. Easily avoidable deaths (like drowning) would cost you more. The idea was to discourage reckless dying. 

When Rare announced their plans to implement the tax, it was met with a wave of unhappy players. Gold is already time-consuming to accumulate currently, which has been a common criticism of the game. The grind would have only gotten worse when you pay for each death. 

In response to the feedback, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate made a separate announcement rescinding the idea.

"Letting everyone know we've heard the feedback and the proposed 'Death Cost' in #SeaOfThieves is, well, dead. We messed up with the messaging around this, and it's now gone. Thanks for the honest feedback and discussion on this."

So if you like fooling around with your friends, then don't worry. Continue to shoot yourself into the sky, taking fall damage. You won't be punished for it.