Rare's open-world pirate game Sea of Thieves first grabbed our attention at E3 back in 2015, where the developer promised gamers the chance to take control of their very own ship, complete with a crew of friends. At this year's E3 we got an extended look at more pirate-themed gameplay, alongside the rather disappointing announcement that the title won't be coming until early 2018.

During today's Microsoft press conference, Rare released a nearly 10-minute video, showing off the latest Sea of Thieves footage. Unfortunately for fans who were looking forward to getting their hands on the game soon, it seems that the release date has been pushed back to the point where it will no longer be launching this year.

What the trailer did bring though, was the exciting news that we'll be able to shoot not just cannonballs but also our own crew from the on-board cannons when the pirate title finally releases. Sharks were also confirmed by the game, and our pirate captain has a little-too-close encounter with the dangerous beast.

As impressive as the footage looks, Rare is certainly taking its time developing the game, which has already been delayed once to 'early 2017'. Obviously we'd prefer the title to come out fully ready, but right now we're not exactly optimistic that this will be the last of the delays to come before Sea of Thieves is finally ready to launch.

Something that Sea of Thieves will be bringing upon release is an impressive cross-play feature between Xbox and PC, which Microsoft claims will 'break down walls' because of how seamless the experience is. Since the game's strengths seem to lie in the co-op gameplay, we're looking forward to seeing just how good the title is when playing with friends on a different platform.

While the game can no longer be a part of our most anticipated games of 2017 list, its sure to be present on the 2018 feature when it drops. For now, we're excited to see what Rare can bring to the title with the extra development time.

Sea of Thieves is slated to release in early 2018 for PC and Xbox One