The main purpose of playing Sea of Thieves is to endlessly catch splash tails and annoy your crew mates (and yourself) with Captain Crappo the Terrible Cat. Other players organize tournaments, fashion shows, and races. There are many ways to find entertainment in the nautical sandbox, and now Rare is trying to give pirates even more tools to create their own fun.

Custom servers have been a frequent request from the community, have been on Rare's roadmap for a while, and are just now being implemented. An alpha version will be released by some creators and community groups in the near future. Anyone can check out preview builds by signing up for the Insider Program.

Details of what you will be able to do with the server are still unknown, but you will not be able to customize your ship number, generate code to distribute to the community, or earn gold or reputation. That last one is important, as custom servers are not a way for players to turn Sea of Thieves into a PvE game. One of the reasons they are offered to community groups first is because they are designed to facilitate tournaments and events that community groups are already hosting.

The servers will also be priced. The price has not yet been determined, but according to Rea, it will probably be an optional feature that can be purchased from the Pirate Emporium. [but I'm sure I'd love to race around the world and have grog-filled bacchanalia on a private server without fear of it being ruined by a pirate sneak attack.