Everyone who had access to last month"s Sea of Thieves closed beta, as well as Xbox Insiders, are invited to join a Scale Test that Rare will be holding this weekend, from 2am PST on February 16 to 2am PST on February 18. The test is designed to stress the game services to find out and address any new issues that pop up, and to see if the remedies that were applied on the problems that players faced during the closed beta will hold up.
According to the developer, players should expect server outages, non-functioning shops and quest givers, and other issues as tests are being conducted across all data centers.
As to the gameplay being offered, the Scale Test will be home to almost all of the features seen in the closed beta, with Gold Hoarders being the only Voyage offering company available. However, the developer is not looking for any feedback regarding the gameplay, as the test is only focused on seeing if the servers can handle massive amounts of players concurrently.
The test should supply some important data to Rare as it prepares for the game"s launch. There will also be more tests being conducted in the coming weeks, and once they are over, the developer confirmed that another beta will be held closer to the game"s launch.
Sea of Thieves is slated to release on March 20 for Windows 10 and Xbox One, featuring Xbox Play Anywhere and cross-play functionalities. Its system requirements can be seen here, and the game will also be a part of the Xbox Game Pass program at launch.