Sea of Thieves begins season 4 today with the release of the new The Sunken Kingdom update. While the update is a packed one, with tons of new content, new exploration, and of course, lots and lots of treasure, some of the accessibility options also stand out.
In the update release notes, something called Nautical Narration has been added. This feature will help those who have the Let Games Read to Me option enabled, and will turn on a form of audio direction cues for those with sight impairments or other difficulties with navigation. There are several options to choose from, depending upon personal preference and individual needs. When a player uses the handheld or ship-mounted compass, and this feature is turned on, if "one shot narration" is set, then there will be a single announcement of what direction your pirate is facing if you press a button on the keyboard or controller. This is E on keyboards or Y on a controller, but you can remap it.
"Continuous" narration means you'll get your pirate's direction in regular intervals whenever you use the compass. "Continuous when equipped" means that as long as a compass is equipped, you'll get updates consistently without even having to raise and actively use the compass. Further, the narration delay for continuous options can be changed in the accessibility settings menu. If you need more frequent updates, you can have them. But if you just need a nudge every so often to reorient, that is also possible.
The Sea of Thieves update is a very big one, and it adds much to the game, but the accessibility improvements do stand out. More and more developers are taking accessibility seriously, so it’s good to see these options made available to make it so more players can enjoy their favorite games or those games can open up to more people. For the full release notes, including the accessibility options, head to the official update.
