00:00So this is it, our final beta, and this is after beginning the Insider Programme back in December 2016
00:05with our Technical Alpha, where we invited the first thousand players in,
00:09and since then we've been kind of growing the feature set, the game, and also the player base and the
00:15community around Sea of Thieves.
00:16It's been a really incredible way to kind of make a game, to be listening to our players,
00:20to be taking their feedback and testing that experience out in the wild.
00:24And the final beta is really that final step on that as we head towards launch,
00:28and we're super excited to be announcing that today.
00:31So there's a few goals for the Sea of Thieves final beta, the first of which is to hit a
00:34greater scale of players than we've ever hit before.
00:37So to that end, we are opening this up to everybody to come in.
00:41And we're also testing some new gameplay features.
00:43So the Merchant Alliance is on for the first time, so you're going to be able to go exploring in
00:48the world,
00:49collecting chickens, collecting pigs, feeding him a little banana,
00:52and something new for players to try out is also skeleton forts.
00:55So this is where there's a chance for those forts that you'll have seen out there in the world to
00:59be occupied by skeletons.
01:02And if they are, you'll see this cloud above the fort itself.
01:05That's when you know that there's kind of these great rewards to be had.
01:08But there's also great risk because other players in the world may well have seen that cloud too.
01:12So as you head towards it, you don't know if there are going to be players already there,
01:15if there are players on their way.
01:16Maybe you want to try crew up together and take down these threats and share out the rewards.
01:20And we're really looking forward to seeing how this kind of plays out on the open seat.
01:25So just like our scale test, this is a beta.
01:27And this is a beta in the truest sense of the word,
01:30where we're going to be testing our services at scale with all of our players.
01:33And with that in mind, we might well see some issues as we...
01:36Because this is going to be the biggest amount of players that we've ever seen playing Sea of Thieves.
01:40And if that happens, there's a number of things you might see.
01:43One of those is that at kind of peak times, we might put temporary kind of blocks on new players
01:48coming in
01:49just to preserve the experience for the players that are already playing.
01:52And you might also see some issues for players that are in there around accessing the store.
01:58So using gold to buy new voyages or to buy kind of cosmetics and stuff.
02:02And our services team are going to be working behind the scenes to kind of alleviate things on the fly.
02:06And it's going to be an incredibly valuable learning to us during this weekend
02:10for changes that we can make on the fly to improve matters, which is going to be great.
02:14But also things that we can then go,
02:16OK, we need to go and address that in the coming week on the run-up to launch.
02:19So, yeah, we are going to learn so, so much from everybody that comes in and plays.
02:24So, you know, thanks to everybody that turns up.
02:26And apologies in advance for anyone that kind of gets hit by any of these issues as they're playing.
02:30So throughout the final beta itself, we'll be providing status updates to our players.
02:34So you can go to at Sea of Thieves on Twitter or you can go to seaofthieves.com
02:38where we have a status banner that we update very regularly.
02:42So if you're experiencing kind of problems getting into the beta or something,
02:45please just go to our Twitter handle or go to seaofthieves.com
02:48and you'll find the latest information there that we'll be updating regularly.
02:51I also wanted to confirm that there's no NDA in place on the final beta,
02:54so you can share away to your heart's content.
02:56And we are really looking forward to seeing some of the new stories that come out
03:00from the new features that we're turning on.
03:01So beyond the final beta itself, we are very, very close to the launch of the full game itself,
03:06which is an incredibly exciting and slightly nervous time for the team at Rare.
03:11But we're so looking forward to kind of getting this game out into everyone's hands at launch
03:15and also looking to listen and react to player feedback out in the wild.
03:20And, you know, beyond launch, that is going to be our focus as a team.
03:24We've purposely left space in our roadmap so that we can be very reactive
03:28to the kind of top points of feedback that are coming in,
03:30and we'll also be very open and transparent about those.
03:33So you can look forward to regular updates from us as a team
03:35about what the top feedback points are and what we're doing to address those.
03:39We are thoroughly looking forward to the final beta
03:41and all of the great stories that we're going to see from that
03:44and also all of the lessons that we can learn to help push us on towards launch
03:47and deliver the best experience for our players there.
03:49And then we are equally as excited to kind of to hit that launch
03:53and to start moving beyond into our post-launch plans.
03:56And we're really, really thankful for everyone that's come on this journey with us so far
04:00and is going to come on that journey with us into the future.
04:03So here's to the final beta and to launch,
04:05and I hope to see you out on the seas.
04:07Cheers!
04:15Pre-order now to receive the Black Dog Pack when the game launches.
04:20Pre-order now to receive the Black Dog Pack when the game launches.
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