Sea of Thieves Takes a Step Toward Providing Friends-Only Servers

Sea of Thieves will get custom servers in the "near future," according to developer Rare. Custom servers have been a widely-requested feature and it seems that Rare has heard the requests. In a blog post made on June 25, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neate explained the feature will be coming to the game in the form of an early Alpha version. This Alpha version will be open to select creators and community groups. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-xbox-one-first-party-review&captions=true"] "We have been working for a while on formalising this support, and in the near future we're going to bring an early Alpha version of Custom Servers to Sea of Thieves as a tool for selected creators and community groups to utilise for community events," Neate said. "We will be working with these creators and community groups to test Custom Servers in a live environment, to gather feedback and prioritise future development priorities in this area." Key features of these custom servers in the Alpha include the ability to set up a Custom Adventure Server, customization of ship number and types prior to starting, generation of a code to distribute to community members to allow them to join, and no gold or reputation progression from custom server sessions. Neate said the purpose of custom servers in Sea of Thieves is to allow creative players the opportunity to use the Sea of Thieves sandbox to create unique experiences for their communities. He stressed that they are not intended to be used as a PvE server, hence the removal of the ability to earn gold and reputation. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/25/sea-of-thieves-the-new-legends-official-sea-of-thieves-showcase-trailer"] As to why the Alpha custom servers are launching to such a limited audience, Neate said that with how bare-bones the feature set currently is, Rare wants to learn how it works with a smaller community before bringing it to a wider audience. He also said that because these servers cost money to run, starting small, "makes sense from a business perspective." Eventually, Neate expects custom servers to be an optional feature that players can access from the Pirate Emporium. For more Sea of Thieves, be sure to check out our latest thoughts on the game in our updated 2020 Sea of Thieves review. After that, read about how Rare successfully reinvented Sea of Thieves. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.