Matt Berry Delivers an Epic Update on Xbox's Sea of Thieves

To mark the launch of Forsaken Shores, Xbox’s biggest ever update to its pirate action adventure game Sea of Thieves, Assembly at Edelman is blowing traditional game updates out the water.

Rather than rely on the conventional approach of posting the update information on fans forums and and sharing with media, the agency called in the unique comedy talents of Matt Berry, star of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Toast of London.

Together, they created a launch film that sees Berry unveil some of the update’s key features in his own hilarious and inimitable style – right from stabbing the list of new game elements with a dagger, to shushing the director as he tries to give him some guidance and refusing to do a second take. The film was produced by Assembly at Edelman and Edelman Deportivo.

Michael Flatt, Global Integrated Marketing Gaming Lead at Xbox, says: “Across the industry, game updates have a history of being relatively pedestrian and dry. As Sea of Thieves’ most epic update yet, we wanted Forsaken Shores to come out with all guns blazing. Matt Berry’s delivery does just that.”

The Forsaken Shores film will run globally on social and video channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Cutdown teasers showing the range of Matt Berry’s delivery and his crazy antics on set will also be released via Instagram Stories and on other social platforms ahead of the full release.

Indy Selvarajah, Creative Director at Edelman Deportivo, says: “We’ve been working with Xbox to go all out on new launches so we thought why not buck the industry trend and take the same creative gusto for a game update too? Sea of Thieves allowed us to combine world-class talent with smart content that would take the gaming legacy to our loyal fans and a new audience.”