Sea of Thieves' Day One Patch Is Literally an Eyepatch

Update: Rare's post on the Sea of Thieves forums made it clear that circumventing region restrictions is against Microsoft's Services Agreement. Players who access Sea of Thieves early do so at their own risk.

Original Story:

The day one patch for Sea of Thieves has been revealed, though it's not exactly what gamers have come to expect from these updates.

Instead of tossing several GBs worth of data at players to download before being able to play the game, Rare instead stuck the Sea of Thieves day one patch in the in-game store. A player who obtained the game early posted evidence on Reddit with a screenshot of the "patch" that showed an eyepatch cosmetic with a red "1" embellished in the center. The user reported that the cosmetic only cost one coin, so Sea of Thieves will probably be filled with players sporting the day one eyepatch as a cheap, early cosmetic.

Giving credit where credit's due, Rare also included a description of the eyepatch to indicate where the idea came from.

"A message in a bottle from Jolly Jefabell Washed ashore," the eyepatch description read. "Eye patch makers read it and said 'aye.'"

The description is a direct reference to an earlier post within the Sea of Thieves subreddit was submitted by a user under the name Jefabell. The post implored Rare not to miss the easy opportunity to include the day one eyepatch as a joke. Rare apparently though it was a pretty amusing suggestion as indicated by the user's name being included in the description as well as other connections to Reddit by indicating that the eyepatch makers received the user's message and "read it."

For those wondering how any of this evidence was even visible since the game's worldwide release on March 20 hasn't occurred yet, Darkwizard98, the user who posted the screenshot of the eyepatch, explained that they were playing the game now by switching their set region to New Zealand. The user explained that the game was already playable for PC or Xbox One players who have an Xbox Game Pass subscription. According to reports from players, the game is just under 19 GB in size on the Xbox One X.

Those who already have the Game Pass subscription also won't even need to purchase the game separately with Sea of Thieves being the first Xbox One/Windows 10 exclusive to be released for free through the Game Pass program. Other games like State of Deay 2 and Crackdown 3 will follow the Sea of Thieves route, according to Xbox's official announcement from January.

Sea of Thieves will launch worldwide on March 20 for the Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.