Sea of Thieves is to receive a new Nautical Narration feature in an upcoming update.
Sea of Thieves players will be able to make use of a new Nautical Narration feature that can help blind and low vision players navigate the seas. James Thomas, lead engineer at Rare explained the feature in the latest news video for the open-world pirate game.
The feature came into existence after Rare saw the way that SightlessKombat plays the game on stream, having a crewmate play some music as they explore an island. This way, Sightless is able to follow the direction of the music and explore with the crew. The feature works similarly to previous updates for the game where toast notifications are narrated, and even emotes being narrated.
As shown in the above video, when players have the feature enabled, they can pull the compass out and have the directions they’re looking at narrated. While the feature can be enabled, there is also a slider to adjust the continuous narration delay.
This will allow more blind and low vision players to jump into the game, and also shows Rare’s continued support in making sure that Sea of Thieves has continued accessibility support. Recently the studio made it easier for players to report accessibility-specific bugs through the use of support requests, and the game has not long launched into its special Pirates of the Caribbean crossover that introduced some more features being added.
The video also touches on the SpecialEffect charity match that saw Rare and Playground Games go head-to-head in a special match. This was also noted as a part of Xbox’s month-long celebration of accessibility and the disabled community.
