It was smooth sailing for most of launch day, but when the clock struck midnight eastern time on March 20th and the entirety of the United States and Canada tried logging in, Sea of Thieves was down. Various error codes have been thrown at users, such as Cinnamonbeard, Lavenderbeard, and Greybeard, with each error code being somewhat unique, but mostly, it means that the Sea of Thieves servers are taking on water.
The extreme bottleneck has led to Rare not allowing new players into the game as they try to fix the issues, while those who could access the game are still getting errors.
In order to resolve the issues players are seeing with the servers, we will be temporarily suspending new players joining the game. We'll get everyone back in and playing as quickly as we can!
— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) March 20, 2018
We've got A LOT of eager pirates playing #SeaOfThieves right now and due to this some of you may experience issues. Our engineers are working hard to investigate and alleviate them. Thanks for your patience! Visit support for more guidance: https://t.co/qtuHXghul5
— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) March 20, 2018
Naturally, it’s led to a huge amount of disappointment from the millions of people who are wishing they were sailing the gorgeous seas. Some gamers are getting toxic, others are lightly ribbing Rare as they scramble to fix the issue, and even brands are getting in on poking fun at the botched launch.
Any update? We have a live stream going on rn where our crew is still talking in that damn #PirateVoice even tho they've started on another game. It's pretty sad: https://t.co/DFVWcOTlVV
We even setup a sweet promo code for #SeaOfThieves for our viewers! Pls fix servers @RareLtd pic.twitter.com/iMAq2WJ6U7
— Newegg (@Newegg) March 20, 2018
OMG, it got even sadder: the guys are now playing a seafaring, pirate level of @humansfallflat in place of #SeaOfThieves and they won't stop doing the pirate voice. #HELP – signed Disappointed Social Media Manager pic.twitter.com/WNAnYFpU7u
— Newegg (@Newegg) March 20, 2018
Update: now they're "sailing their ships to the island of Miramar" and calling themselves the "Pirates of #PUBG." And they won't stop with the pirate puns even tho the joke is overdone. Only you can put an end to this, @RareLtd pic.twitter.com/OR6ub7UyV7
— Newegg (@Newegg) March 20, 2018
In addition to the server errors, players are reporting gold disappearing from their coffers after a long day of plundering. So far, Rare hasn’t publicly addressed those issues, but regarding the “beard errors,” a help page has been set up. If you get the dreaded Cinnamonbeard error, completely quit your game and restart, and it might work if you were able to play before. If you haven’t been able to play the game, you’re stuck on a desert isle for now.