With just a few weeks more before the official launch of Sea of Thieves, Rare announces that it will hold another test for the action-adventure video game this weekend.
The developer likewise reveals that the test will begin on March 2 at 2 a.m. PST until March 4 at 2 a.m. PST. This seems to be the last one to be offered before the title comes out on March 20.
Those who signed up for the Insider Program or preordered the game will be able to join in just like before. Furthermore, similar to the previous beta test, the Voyages of the Gold Hoarders trading company will be available.
Putting It Through Its Paces
For those who will be participating in this test, Rare is setting expectations properly this time around. The game studio will deliberately attempt to stress the title's servers to emulate different scenarios. Perhaps one of those situations anticipates a large number of players as they log in on day one.
"We will purposely be stressing our services by throttling performance at certain times, testing the game in different data centers around the world, and simulating deliberate outages," states the developer.
Scale Test weekend? Scale Test weekend. Hop aboard this Friday for more #SeaOfThieves adventures! While you're at it, please note that issues are expected as we continue to tweak and test server stability! Please read: https://t.co/WMLdOkswwF pic.twitter.com/gJ9kl7njXu — Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) March 1, 2018
Quality Control
It's a common practice of game studios to release patches on launch day to address whatever issues are encountered by users. Rare's approach appears to be something different due to its intentional outages. Sources speculate that the final test will hopefully ensure that everything goes smoothly during launch day.
Sea of Thieves is designed to be a multiplayer experience that encourages gamers to go on adventures with their friends. It offers an open-sea environment wherein players hunt for treasure and encounter other crew along the way. Fierce battles can be waged against other players, which also seem to be optional and the Kraken will supposedly make an appearance as well.
All of these must be fine-tuned to deliver the intended gameplay experience promised by the developer. Just like other Xbox One games, an Xbox Live Gold subscription is required to participate in multiplayer game modes.
Xbox Game Pass
Sea of Thieves will be the first in-house developed game from Microsoft, which will be included in the Xbox Game Pass. Moving forward, all first-party titles will be included in the monthly service on the same dates as its physical and digital releases.
Rare also released the system requirements for the PC version. The specs surprised a lot of gamers due to the minimal hardware it needs to be playable.
Moreover, the Subscribers to the service will reportedly get Rise of the Tomb Raider this month alongside several other games, which will be revealed soon, according to Larry Hryb, Xbox Live director.
