How to play Sea of Thieves early with Xbox Game Pass

Sea of Thieves is almost here and those who preordered the game will be able to access it at midnight in their respective regions. However, what about Xbox Game Pass subscribers? If you're willing to change some settings on your Xbox One, then those with an Xbox Game Pass membership can download and play the game early.

Related: Get Sea of Thieves free with the Xbox One X and other limited treasures

Xbox Game Pass costs $9.99 each month so be sure to check it out if you want a Netflix-style subscription for games. Sea of Thieves is already out in New Zealand so if you go to "Settings" on your console and change the "Location" to New Zealand in the "System" menu, you should see the option to "Install" Sea of Thieves if you go to the Microsoft Store on your Xbox One. We were able to test this out and play the game early. The download comes in at roughly 18 GB on Xbox One X so you might have to wait a while.

You will have to keep your region as New Zealand until the game launches in the country where you reside. If you change it back then you will get a prompt asking if you own the game. Changing regions might be against certain terms and conditions so be mindful of that.

Sea of Thieves is an exploration-based pirate game from Rare. The developer is known for many famous franchises including Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, and GoldenEye. However, in recent years, the team focused on developing Kinect games for Xbox One and Xbox 360. This was a curious decision, so when Phil Spencer became Head of Xbox in 2014, he assigned Rare a new project. Sea of Thieves is a shift for the developer and a concept the team hasn't tackled before.

The game supports Xbox Play Anywhere and native 4K resolution on Xbox One X.

• See Xbox Game Pass at Amazon
• See Xbox Game Pass at Microsoft Store
• See Sea of Thieves controller at Amazon

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