Avast ye hearties, are you eager to try out Microsoft and Rare’s upcoming multiplayer pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves? Well, now you all have a chance! The makers of Sea of Thieves have been running a technical alpha for the past year, but they’ve been pretty choosy about who gets to play – they started with only 1,000 testers, and have slowly ramped up to a couple hundred thousand. Now, for the final testing phase, they’re inviting everybody to play!

　　Here’s what Microsoft had to say about the final phase of alpha testing:

　　“Everyone who joins the Insider Program by the cut-off date will be invited to the next play session – our biggest and best yet – with the latest brace of brand new features to test. Yes, as promised, all eligible Insiders are now getting their chance to jump in and play Sea of Thieves before its release next year.

　　[Over the past year] we’ve debuted new features from skeletal sentinels to solo ships, welcomed your feedback and used it to balance and finetune all manner of things, honoring our promise to shape Sea of Thieves alongside its community.”

　　If you’d like to get in on the technical alpha, you just have to become a Sea of Thieves Insider. You have until December 1 to sign up. Becoming a Sea of Thieves insider is free.

　　Not sure if scouring the high seas is for you? Perhaps you’ll be convinced after watching the latest Sea of Thieves trailer and official gameplay video, below.

　　It will be interesting to see how this game turns out. I can’t say I’m wowed by the visuals (expect the water effects, which are amazing), but I do like the variety and amount of classic Rare silliness on display. What do you think? Ready to do some swashbuckling?

　　Sea of Thieves is expected to sail onto PC and Xbox One sometime in first half or 2018.