Piratical multiplayer adventure Sea of Thieves will finally be introducing much-requested custom servers in the "near future", albeit initially only for a select number of creators and community groups while the feature remains in Alpha.
Custom servers that enable pirates to adventure away from the cutthroat PvP antics of other players have long been a popular request within portions of the Sea of Thieves community, and developer Rare has previously acknowledged it would explore the feature.
In their initial guise, however, custom servers will only be available to the aforementioned creators and community groups and in relatively limited form. The goal of this initial Alpha phase, explains Rare, is to provide select partners with a way to "use our sandbox to create unique experiences for their communities" and will offer swift access to custom servers, an ability to run custom events, and a way to invite community members to take part.