Sea of Thieves Holding Another Test This Weekend

Sea of Thieves will offer another Scale Test on PC and Xbox One this weekend, so you'll have at least one more chance to feel the virtual salty sea air before its impending launch. The test will begin on Friday, March 2 at 2 a.m. PST and end on Sunday, March 4 at 2 a.m. PST.

Keep in mind, though, that developer Rare intends this test to be a real stress test for the game. Not only will the studio be attempting to put Sea of Thieves through its paces, it will actually be throwing wrenches (or scabbards) into the works intentionally. According to the announcement, "[W]e will also purposefully be stressing our services by throttling performance at certain times, testing the game in different data centres around the world, and simulating deliberate outages." So if you run into trouble, it's not you, it's them.

The test will be available for those who pre-ordered or signed up for the Insider Program. As in the previous beta last month, this test will be limited to the Voyages of the Gold Hoarders trading company. That beta was a make-good for the server issues from the January beta.

Sea of Thieves is set to release in just a few short weeks, on March 20. It will be one of the first big tests of Microsoft's ambitious Game Pass expansion, which gives subscribers access to a suite of games including all first-party titles on day-and-date of release. While you're waiting to explore the briny deep, check out 10 reasons we're excited and why we think it has such potential.