Crosswind, An Upcoming F2P Pirate Survival MMO, Is Now Accepting Signups For Their Next Playtest

Uh oh. Every time a "pirate" MMO surfaces, I know quite a few of us get pretty excited. Sea of Thieves is a damn good game these days, but it didn't start out as one if you think back. Skull and Bones...well, I'll just skip that one. Some like it, about 200 of you at this moment on Steam, but it just wasn't for me. Well now I have another one to be cautiously optimistic about.

Crosswind is an upcoming survival MMO that is now taking sign ups on Steam for their upcoming playtest. Taking place in the year 17XX, Crosswind is a free-to-play game that casts players as freelance captain that's been betrayed and abandoned after a job went south. Currently, the playtest will include access to 3 biomes, 3 new playable ships, a merchant ship, an early version of the Tortuga social hub, familiar gathering/crafting/building mechanics, and combat on land and on sea.

That last one will be seamless, by the way. You'll be moving from land to sea and back seamlessly.

Crosswinds is claiming they have 30-40 hours of MMO-type gameplay already available for the test and that content includes ship combat and boss fights out in the wild. We expect to see PvE and PvP content, player trading, raiding, and the ability to build the pirate capital you've always wanted.

As for differences between Crosswind and Sea of Thieves, the team took to reddit and answered that exact question from a player. The primary difference given is that in Crosswind, players won't just control their own character. Eventually they will have to manage a crew of NPC characters. There's also more of a focus on ground-based combat and boss fights. While the team acknowledges that Sea of Thieves is a great game in their opinion, they point to crafting and gear progression as other key differences.

I really hope this pans out and isn't ruined by terrible F2P monetization and tech issues. See you in the playtest. While you wait, here's the new trailer.