What’s next for the future of gaming? To find out, Dona Sarkar chats with Joe Neate, Executive Producer of the hit pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves. Joe talks about major gaming trends that are influencing Sea of Thieves and the expansion of the game’s rich storylines. Next, we explore the growing popularity of game streaming by chatting with Microsoft’s Mixer team. Marketing director Jenn McCoy and engineer Chad Gibson discuss how the Mixer platform is sparking new experiences in gameplay and innovations in game design. Finally, we catch up with Windows Insiders at E3 and get their impressions on what’s most exciting about the future of gaming.     Episode Transcription JASON HOWARD:  You're listening to the Windows Insider Podcast, Episode 16 -- Next-Level Gaming.  I'm your host, Jason Howard. This episode, we'll be chatting about exciting trends hitting the gaming universe -- namely, gaming as a service, and interactive live streaming with Mixer.  First up, Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider Program, sits down with Joe Neate, executive producer at Rare.  Rare is the game developer behind Sea of Thieves, the multi-player pirate adventure that has taken Xbox and Windows 10 by storm.  Here's Dona and Joe. (Music.) (Sea of Thieves pirate audio clip.) The life of a pirate is fraught with danger. For you see, to journey out onto the waves is to take a step into the unknown. There are things that have lived there and rulled there far longer than us. Great terrors from the deep. Some I’ve seen with my own eye. DONA SARKAR:  Hello, again, Insiders!  I'm Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider Program.  And you just heard a snippet from one of the new content trailers for Sea of Thieves.  Here to talk about Sea of Thieves and new trends in the gaming universe is a very special guest -- Joe, welcome to the show.  Could you start by introducing yourself to our audience and sharing a few words about what you do? JOE NEATE:  Yes.  So I'm Joe Neate, and I'm the executive producer on Sea of Thieves.  Ultimately, I've been involved in the project from the very start from when it was kind of just Post-Its on a whiteboard figuring out what was next for Rare, through to what it is now.  Yeah, ultimately, responsible for vision and maintaining the vision and delivery and now running and operating, growing it as a service. DONA SARKAR:  That's amazing.  I want to ask you all about the latest Sea of Thieves news -- our Insiders definitely want to know.  But first, can you please share what it's like to be the executive producer at a gam dev company like Rare, being the chief wrangler and all? JOE NEATE:  It's an amazing responsibility.  So to have that responsibility of coming up with what is next for a studio like Rare.  You know, Rare has been in the gaming industry for 32 years now, which is pretty much since the games industry began, and they've done so many different games.  And so to have that opportunity to sit down and look at the kind of emerging trends in the industry, to see where player tastes are going and figure out what you think is going to be the place you should take gaming and you should take players with you is an incredible feeling.  Even just the different stages of game development from when you've just got the idea through to kind of pitching it to prototyping to getting into the real production of it, and then starting to build a community and bring fans in and then get people playing it and go through all of that, and then eventually get to launch and have an incredible launch.  And now we're in this place where we've got this game out there, we've got this huge community, and now we just want to grow and build on top of it.  I'm very privileged to have the job that I have and to get to do what I do every day.  DONA SARKAR:  That is amazing.  So for the very few, small number of people in our audience who are not yet familiar with Sea of Thieves, can you give us a quick rundown of what the game is all about?  JOE