Rare has detailed the start date for Season One of Sea of Thieves. Set to begin on January 28, this will mark the first major change to Rare's development plans for the title, where it will now shift to a seasonal schedule instead of the monthly updates it currently follows.
Alongside this switch, it is also expected that a battle pass system will be introduced, called the Plunder Pass. On top of this, a new way to experience the game will come with every season (which should last around three months), in the same sort of style of many other seasonally updated titles. It was also revealed in the developer update video that the PvP Arena mode will no longer be receiving new updates - instead Rare intend to focus on just the base game.
You can take a look at the developer video below that details a lot of what we can expect to see in the coming Season One of Sea of Thieves.