Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert wasn’t concerned with the Sea of Thieves DLC: ‘Occurred behind my again’

Once I heard in the course of the Xbox Showcase that Sea of Thieves is getting a Monkey Island growth, I believed to myself, “That is good—I am glad that Ron Gilbert is cashing in.” However because it seems, he’s not, and actually he had nothing to do with it.

Gilbert is extensively acknowledged because the creator of the Monkey Island video games, which he co-wrote with fellow Lucasarts luminaries Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer. He really solely labored on the primary two video games within the collection earlier than leaving Lucasarts, however returned to the collection in 2022 with the excellent Return to Monkey Island.

Clearly, the passage of time has not dulled Gilbert’s Monkey Island mojo. However when he was requested about it on Mastodon, Gilbert mentioned that he wasn’t really concerned with the Sea of Thieves DLC in any respect.

“Nope. It was all accomplished with out my information or enter,” Gilbert mentioned in response to a query about working with Uncommon on the DLC. To a separate inquiry, he replied, “Wasn’t even instructed about it. Occurred behind my again.”

This was doable due to the rights state of affairs. Gilbert was the primary thoughts behind the collection, but it surely belongs to Lucasarts, the corporate he labored for, and which retained that possession when he left. Lucasarts was acquired by Disney in 2012, together with all its game properties; Gilbert and Devolver have been in a position to do a take care of Disney in 2019 to allow them to make a brand new game, however Disney retains possession of the IP, which means that if it desires to do one other Monkey Island take care of another person—say, Microsoft—it may well.

Gilbert confirmed that that is the case in an e mail despatched to PC Gamer, saying, “Disney owns the rights and might do what they need.”

Gilbert’s preliminary replies made it sound like he simply awoke in the future to find that Monkey Island is coming to Sea of Thieves, however he later clarified that is not really the case. “I used to be given a heads up earlier than the announce, however wasn’t given a possibility to be meaningfully concerned,” he mentioned. “I do want the game properly. I like Monkey Island.”

I hope it goes properly too, as a result of it is a pure match: Sea of Thieves takes a cartoonish, comedic strategy to the lifetime of excessive seas piracy that embraces “goofiness and enjoyable” over grim, gritty realism. Even the visible kinds aren’t too far aside—with some weight achieve and a superb beard, Sea of Thieves’ Cursed Captain would make a fairly good LeChuck. 

It might’ve been nice if Gilbert had been in a position to contribute to the DLC, however I’ve fairly excessive hopes for it even with out him. Monkey Island involves Sea of Thieves on July 20.