Masterful RPG Sea of Stars hints at definitive edition as dev builds next game

Not content with putting out one of the most impressive modern RPGs in recent years in Sea of Stars, Sabotage Studio recently followed it up with the launch of substantial, free story DLC Throes of the Watchmaker, which is easily one of the best things I've played this year. Now, in a new interview, creative director and Sabotage CEO Thierry Boulanger explains why it came out at no cost, and teases the potential for one more Sea of Stars update as the team continues work on its new game, Project Sparrow.

Speaking to Game Informer, Boulanger remarks that the choice to make Sea of Stars expansion Throes of the Watchmaker a free DLC "wasn't a business decision." It was already planned to be free for Kickstarter backers, he explains, but then the base game ended up "about seven times more successful than we anticipated from the best sunny-day scenario."

To my mind, it deserves every bit of that success; Sea of Stars is hands-down one of the best RPGs I've played; at once a masterful tribute to classics such as Chrono Trigger and a standout story in its own right. It deserves a spot in the upper echelons alongside 2025's Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and the DLC is a magnificent ten-hour romp that doesn't let up on that high quality bar, delivering some incredible tricks along the way.

"We'd been given the means [to make it free], essentially," Boulanger continues. "So the DLC is a 'thank you' lap for everyone who made it possible. We can afford to just do it. We don't need to sell it to stay afloat. The game is doing well enough. But also just creatively, man, it was such a trip to just be like, 'Let's just make this as good as we can make it. And the only metric is we want to have fun making it and do what makes sense,' and not to worry about serving size."

Boulanger emphasizes that Throes of the Watchmaker "was two years of work, full time for the team." Now, however, the team is moving more of its focus onto the next game, currently codenamed 'Project Sparrow,' which was first pitched over a year ago. While there's currently no expected timeline, he stresses that "it probably will be years" before we see the finished product. Teasingly, he also says that, much like the studio's previous game, The Messenger, any future releases will "absolutely" take place in the same universe.

In the meantime, is the team at Sabotage completely done with Sea of Stars? Boulanger confirms that "there won't be more DLC, that's for sure," but says the team is considering something else "maybe for next year, or to celebrate three years of the game, or something." He makes no commitments, but hypothesizes that it could be "some kind of a definitive edition, which would essentially add something in the intro portion of the game and also beef up a little bit towards the ending."

"I can't really say it's done, done. Art is never finished," Boulanger remarks. While I'll be happy for any excuse to talk about Sea of Stars, I'm excited for what the team is cooking next. While we wait for that, I've just started playing The Messenger for the first time, and I'd highly recommend giving it a shot if you enjoy the vibes, humor, story, and soundtrack of SoS, even if the premise of a 2D action platformer doesn't immediately catch your eye in the same way.

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