A collaboration that truly spans the sea… Beyond x Sea of Thieves.
Piracy, Galleons and breath-taking sights.
Suppose you have ever dreamed of living a pirate’s life, finding long lost treasure, sailing the seas with your famous (or infamous) crew. Or charging into battle with cannons roaring surrounded by maximum carnage, Sea of Thieves was made for you!
Sea of Thieves got off to a slightly rocky launch with a lack of content. Still, nobody could deny that the game looked beautiful, performed to perfection mechanically, ran incredibly smooth and offered a wonderful air of intrigue! Now, the game’s in an entirely different position, a truly unique position, and this is down to the incredible work of the fantastic team behind the game!
After receiving word that not everyone was happy about the state of the game on release, Rare took quick action. Content roadmaps were drawn, patches were sent, and new adventures were released into the game in no time. Rare have kept this momentum since then, and now Sea of Thieves is seeing more growth with each passing day.
With this constant growth, the now sizeable player base quickly becomes hungry for more content to delve into. This keeps the creative minds at Rare working at max capacity. It’s safe to say they thrive under this pressure, as the recent kick-off of season six has got players excited!
The introduction of the all-new Sea Forts has given players the itch for loot, whether they’re experienced Pirate Lords or complete newbies, and the promised release of even more content throughout the season is sure to keep them busy for some time to come! If you are looking to partake in a spot of light piracy, sea sailing or skelly slaying, then now is the time to jump into Sea of Thieves!
If, at this point, you have decided to jump in, let me give you a little rundown on what you should be expecting!
The introduction to Sea of Thieves has you creating your very own dashing seafarer because you can’t be running around with just any old ugly mug! From here, you find yourself in a random outpost somewhere on the Sea of Thieves, and here you can pick up your first couple of voyages to get to grips with the game and then it’s full steam ahead! Now it’s time to get out there and find your horizon.
Do not think that from here on, it is plain sailing (zing) as even though you may be out for an adventure, some are out with one objective and one objective only. Sink you, take your loot and end your fun. If you decide to go it alone, then these guys can be a real pain, the heart-wrenching fear when you see a fully manned Galleon approaching in the distance off the bow of your single man sloop can set the nerves off, especially when you have a deck brimming with your hard-earned booty.
There is a lot to do outside of pillaging and trying your best not to be sunk by some less than reputable individuals roaming the open ocean! You have a multitude of Trading Companies to increase your rank with through a variety of different activities, my personal favourite of which is the Order of Souls. This mystical order craves control of the magical forces of the Sea of Thieves.
You can increase your rank with the Order of Souls by bringing them the Cursed Skulls of Skeleton Captains you have slain or Ghost Ships that you have sunk. Order of Souls Madames can be found in every outpost, and they’re easy to spot. Their gloomy purple tents are quite… Unique.
Sea of Thieves comes from an ocean of experience.
The Beyond NRG collaboration with Rare is focused entirely on Sea of Thieves. However, the history of the game creators spreads much further than this. Since Rare’s formation in 1985, Rare has been quite the success story with some iconic titles under its belt, such as Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye 007, Battletoads, Perfect Dark, and many others. Rare have won awards from Baftas to being dubbed, ‘The Top 30 Developers of all time’.
Started by two men with limitless ambition, Rare quickly developed itself into a success story, known worldwide for its constant onslaught of exceptional titles. The success story started when Rare impressed Nintendo to the extent that they bought a stake in the company and offered Rare access to their catalogue of characters to create a 3D CGI game.
The result was Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, a highly praised critical success that sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it the third best-selling game in the SNES library.
After the investment by Nintendo and the immense success of the new titles, Rare was able to expand significantly. They were increasing staff numbers up to the hundreds and forcing them to move out of their previous HQ at the Manor Farmhouse into somewhere more fitting for one of the world’s best game developers! The rest is relatively self-explanatory.
Rare continued making fantastic games, creating icons, and showing the world that they seriously mean business.
A product worthy of the Pirate Lords!
Now, working on a collaborative product with a titan like Rare means going miles above and Beyond to create the most mind-blowing product is a given. You’ll be happy to learn that mind-blowing isn’t anywhere near a good enough description of Athena Colada.
Before I move on, the name must be mentioned. We had so many ideas for the flavour name, each time we found some reason why we didn’t like it, whether it didn’t roll off the tongue quickly enough, didn’t look nice on the package, or simply sounded silly, it was no easy feat.
However, the perfect and most fitting name we could have possibly thought of, Athena Colada, was a complete accident!
Earlier, the name was initially mentioned in a brainstorming session with our SoT partners as a joke, and everyone involved immediately said no. But then, less than two minutes later, there was a sudden “Hold on that works perfectly” followed by an impromptu remix of Rupert Holmes’ iconic song Escape, and suddenly, we had our name. A real happy accident!
We put our absolute all into this product. The design, the flavour, the shaker, and the competitions behind the product’s launch all went through many different styles before we settled on the final product. When I say different styles, I mean all of them. There were countless various iterations of each design on the way to finding the final perfect look.
Looking at whether we could add more background elements to the product box, a couple of little extra easter eggs on the preliminary design on the face of the box, changing the colour of the shaker, changing text, tub colour, mixed product colour. To make sure it was 100% perfect, we picked through everything with excruciating precision.
The time taken was worth it as the finished product truly is a thing of beauty that no other brand in this industry has come close to (speaking with a hint of obvious bias). However, we are incredibly proud of this product, disregarding the slight bias.
The community reaction to it massively exceeded our expectations. This means the world to everyone at Beyond, as it took the creative ideas and brainpower of everyone here to bring this product to you.
Now, enough chin-wagging, let’s get into the good stuff!
If you like Athena Colada
The all-important part, the flavour! The clue is in the name. There was only one correct option for a game as tropical and sun-kissed as Sea of Thieves—a Pina Colada.
To capture the magnificent notion of the Sea of Thieves, we aimed to bring the flavours and emotion of the tropics to the masses through what we all know as the most tropical cocktail you can get.
The light, fruity, pineapple, mango, pomegranate, banana and coconut notes combined to send your imagination off onto a Caribbean adventure where the seas are filled with Pirate lords and skellies aplenty.
Athena Colada is basically designed to make you feel like Jack Sparrow, and let’s be honest, being Jack Sparrow has been a dream for all of us at one point or another!
The flavour isn’t the only part of this product that’s sure to blow your mind. As it is a Collector’s Edition bundle, you know what else is in there… The custom shaker. Now, this is no regular old shaker, oh no.
There is something extraordinary about it. It’s not the beautiful Sea of Thieves inspired design, and it’s not the new colour or the fact that it is transparent. It’s this. It glows in the dark. The shaker glows in the dark. If you have ever had issues finding your shaker in the darkness, then consider those problems solved because, as I said, it glows in the dark!
We are immensely proud of this product. After months of work from us and three of our amazing Pirate Lords, Spammals, BehavingBeardly and Captain Falcore, the whole thing has become something exceptional. A product that we believe is perfect for the Beyond and Sea of Thieves community. Speaking of community, let’s have a little chat about that.
Beyond x Sea of Thieves… The Perfect Pairing.
Another thing about this collab that makes it even more special for us is the community. Not just the Beyond or Sea of Thieves community, but both united. The two communities are so similar that this collab has meant that lovers of the brand and the game can come together and bond over what they love, playing games and meeting like-minded people.
The Sea of Thieves community is one of the most welcoming and open groups! Yes, there are those less than friendly people, who will stop at nothing until they have sent you and your ship to the bottom of the sea, but 99% of the community are always down to help people out in a tight spot or take them aboard to show the ropes and take them on their first thrilling adventure!
A Huge Thank You
Honestly, from the hearts of everyone at Beyond NRG, thank you. Without the never-faltering support of our fantastic community and Ambassadors, none of this would be possible.
We feel honoured by the love and support we receive every day. It’s the driving force behind us, constantly looking to give back to our community as much as possible!
Now, you know what you have to do, get out there and find YOUR adventure… and, of course – Explore the seas. Be More Pirate. Drink Beyond.
