Microsoft to allow Rare to bypass certification process for Sea Of Thieves

Sea Of Thieves originally announced at Xbox’s E3 2015, has been one of the longest, if not the longest, running alpha build ever for a game.  It’s a weekly updated game that Microsoft is confident enough to let Rare bypass the certification process for their game:
“The submissions process — normally that’s a time-consuming period,” Rare’s Joe Neate said to Stevivor. “Xbox would test it and make sure it all works. Our release of the game… will not be tested by Xbox because we’ve released the game so many times and we’ve not had any issues.” UK based team is confident in this process, “this will be amazing if it goes wrong.”
Joe continues to add – “We release a new version of the game every week and we’ve built that muscle over the last 18 months. We’ve done more content updates than pretty much any game in the Xbox portfolio, and we’re not out yet.[This is] a complete change in culture from a single point in time release; this is continuous delivery. Our bug count is always under a hundred; on most games, you’re in the multiple thousands as you approach release. “Basically, the launch of the game will be just another release. We’ve got confidence in our process.”

Sea Of Thieves is scheduled to arrive Spring 2018 for Xbox One(X) and Windows 10.