Thievery and life in the sea are two things that are best enjoyed with comrades, and this is something "Sea of Thieves" is taking advantage of. After painstakingly working on the concept and features of the game, an initial product is ready to be tested in its upcoming technical alpha.

On a blog post, executive producer Joe "Three Sheets" Neate announced that the technical alpha will kick off on Dec. 16–18. The goal of the said alpha is to give insiders the chance to test out the fruits of the collaboration between the development team and those who registered for the Insider Programme. Furthermore, this will give a chance for the participants to provide feedback on what needs to be polished basing on the prototype game, as well as use those data gathered for the team to work on and improve before official launch.

In a recent alpha gameplay trailer, it shows that the goal will be to locate an island where the treasure is, take it safely to the Shipwright while thwarting threats, and finally cash in with huge sums of money. It also carries playful elements, such as the Ferry of the Damned who can decide to bring a dead pirate back to life, as well as mermaids who come to aid of those who get shipwrecked.

It can be recalled that "Sea of Thieves" launched an Insider Programme, which aims to get valuable insight from players from different walks of life on how to go about with the development of the game. The technical alpha can be considered a rough draft of that collaboration, and it is proper that the insiders get the first dibs of what they have worked on.

With an overwhelming support from fans, the game developers have decided to pre-select a thousand participants for the initial alpha to make sure feedback is monitored. It will get larger as the alpha progresses, so insiders can stay put while they wish for luck.

No launch date has been decided yet, but "Sea of Thieves" will be pillaging the waters by 2017.