‘Sea Of Thieves’ Closed Beta Will Test Xbox One/PC Cross-Save And ‘Running On A Potato’
This week’s Sea of Thieves closed beta marks another important milestone in the development of the open-world multiplayer pirate adventure title. Rare is fully enabling Xbox Play Anywhere to allow cross-saves between Xbox One and Windows 10 devices in addition to the previously available cross-play.
Rare has been testing cross-play between the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs since an update to the Sea of Thieves technical alpha last August. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but that is the point of the shakedown cruises that are alphas and betas.
Turning on cross-saves for the closed beta will allow an individual to play on their Xbox One, quit, and then continue to play on their PC (or vice versa). All player progress is tied to the Xbox LIVE account used.
In addition to testing cross-play and cross-save, Rare is asking for help testing the PC version of Sea of Thieves. The studio is asking closed beta players to record the specs of the computer they play the game on along with the graphics settings and their experience with it on the Sea of Thieves official forums.
Rare wants to make Sea of Thieves capable of “running on a potato” and will support resolutions all the way down to 540p. The developers have also added a none-to-subtly named “Cursed” graphics setting for the absolute lowest graphical detail.
The Sea of Thieves closed beta will run for five days starting Wednesday, January 24 at 7 a.m. ET/4 a.m. PT. It will end at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on Monday, January 29. Access to the beta can be gained by pre-ordering the game or will be given automatically to those who participated in the Insider Programme.
Pirates interested in Sea of Thieves shouldn’t expect a taste of the full version of the game during the beta. Rare crafted a special version of the game just for the test in order to keep the bulk of the pirate life a surprise for the full release in March.
Closed beta participants who have not tried Sea of Thieves yet will want to gather some friends or look into using the Looking for Group (LFG) Xbox LIVE feature to put a pirate party together. The game has a strong multiplayer focus as players sail ships from island to island, hunt for treasure via treasure maps, and fight skeletons on land.
