Sea of Thieves is a popular live service pirate game from Microsoft and Rare that lets players set sail with their friends, find buried treasure, fight skeletons, interact with enemy players, and more. With Sea of Thieves being a social game, one would imagine that its busiest times would be the weekend when most people are off work and out of school, but unfortunately, it seems many fans of the game are unable to play right now due to some server issues.

Sea of Thieves servers were down for hours on Saturday, January 8 and continue to have issues on Sunday, January 9. The Sea of Thieves server problems started in the afternoon of January 8, with the official Twitter account acknowledging the issue and telling fans that it's being investigated. Seven hours after that tweet was sent, the Sea of Thieves Info & Support Twitter sent out another tweet offering an update on the situation, though it seems the servers are still down.

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Sea of Thieves developer Rare confirmed that it is still investigating the issues with the game's matchmaking that are making it impossible for players to log in. Players who have been able to play Sea of Thieves or who were already in the game prior to the server issues were reporting other problems, like a major delay in Gold popping up after selling items, and it seems those issues have been resolved at least. Rare is hoping to offer an update on the matchmaking problems later on January 9.

One of the most common error codes that Sea of Thieves players are running into while trying to play the game this weekend is Alabasterbeard. The Sea of Thieves Alabasterbeard error simply means that players are unable to connect to the servers, so it makes sense that would be the error code that's popping up for everyone. Here's hoping that Rare is able to nail down what's causing the issue and fix it soon so Sea of Thieves fans can get back to playing the game.

Sea of Thieves had a somewhat rough launch, but it has amassed a fanbase of dedicated players and its reputation has improved in recent years. Rare has consistently added new content to the game, including a sizable Pirates of the Caribbean-themed expansion. More content is constantly in the pipeline for Sea of Thieves, with no end in sight.

But even though Rare is busy making new content for Sea of Thieves, it's also pursuing new projects as well. Rare's next-gen game Everwild is in active development, though not much of the game has been shown at the time of this writing.

Sea of Thieves is out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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