Microsoft’s Sea of Thieves is currently inaccessible for subscribers of their Xbox Game Pass service. The game works fine for those who’ve purchased it on Xbox and PC, however, those trying to access it through the Game Pass are not able to play it.
The Xbox Game Pass is a subscription-based service started by Microsoft almost a year ago. The service takes inspiration from Netflix as it enables subscribers to play different games in the subscription’s library for free. Launched in June 2017, the subscription came with a ton of games from the start and the monthly subscription charge was only $9.99. For $9.99 a month you could play games like Halo 5, all of the games from the Gears of War series and much more.
Microsoft promised more games in the future and they’ve delivered. Now, more games keep getting added on to the subscription as Microsoft is trying to get more people on board with it. However, despite Microsoft’s best efforts, the subscription didn’t gather a lot of steam as much as Microsoft would’ve hoped it to. That was probably because of the fact that most of the games being offered within the subscription, although great games, were very old and were very cheap, to begin with.
However, all of this is set to change as Microsoft recently announced that first-party exclusives will be available through the subscription from day one. This was set to start with Sea of Thieves, however, there seem to be technical errors from Microsoft’s side as Xbox Players are not able to access the game. What was meant to happen was that anyone who had the subscription would’ve been able to download and play the game just like anyone who purchased the game. However, people who’ve downloaded the game through Game Pass get the same error one gets when they try to access a game they don’t have ownership rights for:
Do you own this game or app?” If you have a game disc, insert it now. If you bought this online, make sure you’re signed in to Xbox Live. If you don’t have rights for playing it, you’ll need to get it at the Microsoft Store.”
You’re also presented with the 0x803f8001 error code upon receiving this message which normally directs you towards a support page for help. The issue is currently only limited to Sea of Thieves, you can play the rest of your Game Pass games without issues. However, Microsoft has picked up on the error and are working on resolving it. The official Twitter for the Sea of Thieves game has also tweeted regarding the whole situation.
Our team are currently investigating an issue affecting Game Pass players and are working to resolve it as soon as possible. We'll update you as soon as we can.
— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) March 27, 2018
Although we know that the problem is on the other end and not on the user’s end, it’s unclear as to what triggered the issue. It’s uncertain at this point if the issue was a fault from Microsoft’s side or it was something related to the new Sea of Thieves update that just rolled out. This is because there are countless other games which other players don’t “own” yet they can access them through Game Pass without any problem. So, it might be an issue with the game which the game developers need to look into.
Whatever caused the issue, it is already being looked into by both parties, therefore, it shouldn’t take long for the issue to be resolved. However, for now, Game Pass members are unable to play Sea of Thieves. Keep checking the Xbox Status page to see if the issue has been resolved. The status page should specify which game is having issues if any, so you’ll know if the particular Sea of Thieves issue has been resolved yet or not.