Rare studio head Craig Duncan and executive producer Joe Neate took time away from what they describe as round-the-clock triage of those issues to put together the video update above. Still, issues with connectivity are still common, as are delays in receiving in-game currency and other rewards. That prompted Rare to take the unusual step of temporarily blocking new players from joining in on the fun, a restriction that appears to have been lifted for now.

Over the last 48 hours, players around the world have had difficulty logging into the game, with errors such as “cinnamonbeard,” “greybeard” and “lavenderbeard” cropping up repeatedly on both PC and Xbox One. The bottom line is that they were not prepared for the number of players that showed up on day one, and are scrambling to improve their infrastructure and manage the load. A day after the launch of Sea of Thieves, an ambitious multiplayer pirate adventure game for Windows PC and Xbox One, the developers at Rare have issued a candid video update regarding the game’s persistent technical issues.

Sea of thieves lavender beard