Sea of Thieves’ big Forsaken Shores content update gets a dramatic new teaser trailer

Sea of Thieves’ next major content update, Forsaken Shores, is right around the corner, launching on September 19th. In the run-up to its release, Rare has unveiled a brand-new cinematic teaser trailer, highlighting and hinting at some the new additions that the update will bring.

It’s a bit of a dramatic one too, intercutting the ultimately disastrous attempts by an unknown crew to penetrate the Forsaken Shores’ fiery new biome, the Devil’s Roar, and the sorrowful song of a lone survivor. For those less concerned about Sea of Thieves’ narrative fancies, and more interested in Forsaken Shores’ new features, it offers a good few teases too.

As a quick aside, the below trailer is an unofficial rip; the version that briefly appeared on the official Xbox YouTube channel has now been removed, with Rare’s Twitter feed explaining that it’s delayed release while it fixes issues related to today’s new maintenance patch. Evidently the internet’s ‘record’ button was easier to reach than Xbox’s ‘delete’ button.

The new teaser offers another look at the already well-documented new rowboats, as well as another quick tour around the perilous Devil’s Roar. Additionally, we see the ill-fated crew positively festooned with new cosmetics, including clothing, weapons, and ship livery, all fetchingly themed around red-hot metal – likely the update’s limited-time rewards.

And do the trailer’s various prominent facial smears indicate that Forsaken Shores might also introduce face paint as a new customisation option for pirates?

We could also speculate on the mysterious glowing treasure chests that appear around the 0:55 mark. Are we looking at something as exotic as a new chest type that needs to be constantly doused in water to prevent it from setting a vessel alight, or something as mundane as bog-standard chests given a cosmetic flourish for thematic purposes? Time will tell.

Rounding things, of course, is our old friend the crab – who’s so far managed to be in all three content update trailers for Sea of Thieves, even though it’s still not yet in-game. Could Forsaken Shores be its chance to shine or is Rare still playing the long game with crabby?

Rare has already detailed many of Forsaken Shores’ other additions, including new Merchant Alliance quests requiring the delivery of new special-care items – and we’ll likely learn more of the update’s secrets as its September 19th release on PC and Xbox One approaches.