Sea of Thieves competitive PvP mode announced, out early next year

Sea of Thieves developer Rare has revealed a new competitive PvP mode called The Arena, which will launch early next year.

In The Arena, you and a group of friends take on rival crews with the aim of amassing the most loot. Expect both ship and hand-to-hand combat as you try to sink your opponents and steel their goodies.

It's all in service of impressing a new trading company, called the Sea Dogs—presumably they'll be the ones totting up the treasure at the end.

Essentially, it's Sea of Thieves PvP condensed down onto a smaller map where you're given specific goals, and I can see that sort of guaranteed action appealing to lots of people. 

You can watch a trailer for the new mode above.