Update 4:00 PM AEDT: According to the SoT support Twitter account, Rare’s investigation into the Sea of Thieves serer issues is ongoing, and that it expects to have an update for players tomorrow. Engineers seem to have fixed the issue surrounding rewards for players still on the servers, and gold should now be paying out again. Otherwise, pirates are advised to sit tight.
We’re continuing to investigate the reports surrounding matchmaking and we hope to have an update tomorrow. Players affected by delays in Gold when selling should now see it begin to appear in game.
Thank you for your patience as the team work to resolve this.
— Sea of Thieves Info & Support (@SoT_Support) January 9, 2022
The original story continues below.
Sea of Thieves is having server issues this morning, leaving players unable to access the game.
Players attempting to log into Rare’s pirate-themed multiplayer sandbox are experiencing long connection times, and connection failure errors. The primary error, Alabasterbeard, relates to server issues specifically and is affecting the game across all platforms. From Rare’s support site:
AlabasterBeard, AllmondBeard & CyanBeard
Your connection to Xbox Live and/or the Sea of Thieves services has been disrupted or lost. Please check your console’s network status via the Settings > Network menu.
I’ve tried logging in several times this morning to verify the server outage for this piece, and have received an Alabasterbeard error on each attempt.
According to the Sea of Thieves Support Twitter page, Rare is aware of the server issue and believes it to be related to matchmaking. The issue appears to lie with the game itself, and not the Xbox Live platform. At the time of writing, the official Xbox Live Status page is not reporting any outages.
The team is aware of a current issue with matchmaking.
We are investigating and will update once it is resolved. Until then, please be aware that you could experience a delay in accessing the game, and some players may be unable to get in.
Thank you for your patience.
— Sea of Thieves Info & Support (@SoT_Support) January 8, 2022
The error comes days after Sea of Thieves ran server downtime to pull down its holiday event and decorations. This outage may not be related to that holiday downtime, but the timing certainly matches up. As longtime players know, Sea of Thieves is a delicate creature. Changes to the game’s codebase, large or small, regularly create unexpected headaches. The community often holds its breath after major patches, waiting to see which older systems the newer ones have broken.
To be clear, this is not generally considered a bad thing. For many, it’s actually part of the game’s charm.
A quick browse through Twitter reveals players already in the game were kicked when the issues began.
I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF VERY IMPORTANT THINGS pic.twitter.com/Wa6Q9eCgU4
— SOURCREAMVIKING (@gamgee01) January 8, 2022
There are, however, many players that remain on the servers. They’re still in the game, roaming the seas unimpeded by fresh spawns. Unfortunately, the server issues have knocked trading company rewards out too. The companies will accept the loot but reward no gold or doubloons. This has left these players stranded, laden with booty and unable to sell any of it. These players are now refusing to log out until they get their gold.
just waiting pic.twitter.com/rm5eh91nnd
— Daniloᣵᶺ⸁ (@kodackmg) January 9, 2022
Look, at least it didn’t happen on a Gold & Glory Weekend! We’ll keep you posted on any further developments, or when the servers come back up.
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