SOE Boards Pirate MMO
Sony Online Entertainment has formed a partnership with developer Flying Lab Software to publish the studio's upcoming pirate-themed MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea.
"Platform Publishing and SOE possess a level of expertise and success in sales, marketing and distribution that makes them the perfect co-publisher for Pirates of the Burning Sea," said Flying Lab CEO Russell Williams.
Based on past SOE public relations debacles over games such as Star Wars Galaxies, in addition to the company's recent acquisiton of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes developer Sigil Games Online, Flying Lab was quick to allay fears that the publisher would be gaining any power over the development of the game. "We're self-financed and beholden to no one," read a post by Williams on Flying Lab's website. "Flying Lab is in good shape. We made this decision because we wanted to, not because we had to."
The developer went on to explain their new relationship with SOE, asserting that Flying Lab will retain complete ownership of the game and keep most of the revenue from sales. "If Pirates isn't good, if you don't like how the game is designed, or how the servers are operated, or how we interact with our community, it'll be our fault, not SOE's. We own the game and the buck stops here," added Williams.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is due out this fall, with an expanded beta test scheduled to hit within the next few weeks. SOE sent along a few new screenshots of the game.
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shortbuscaptain
replyToo many cooks spoil the broth.
Sounds too similar to the Vanguard situation, hopefully SoE won't devour this game.-
Uh, I don't think you know what you're even talking about. When SOE picked up publishing rights for Vanguard, Sigil retained ALL creative control and held the IP. They dropped the ball and SOE had to come in and clean house. With its sales, subscriber numbers, and bleak outlook there was no way Sigil would remain open in a year.
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Exactly, it is the same situation as in Vanguard.
Sigil promised that all the creative control would rely in their hands, SOE would mainly take care of the publishing side as they have stated right here.
Shortly after that, Sigil started to pull in SOE devs, and we all know the story from there on out.
Regardless this game is a niche game, the competition they are trying to draw from is Eve Online mainly - it is the only game out there that has a similar type gameplay. Now that we all know it is a niche game, the subscriber base will be a lot lower.
I am just hoping it pulls a strong enough base to keep the game going in the creative direction the original developers have intended. I truly do hope SOE does not step in any deeper than handling the publishing aspects when it becomes painfully obvious that the subs will be good for niche game, but no where as expected as a wow competitor hoping to be a blockbuster - they always shoot high meh.
Don't get me wrong, I am hoping this game is a smashing success and am really looking forward to sink my teeth into it. Hopefully we will get a shack guild going when beta rolls around.-
It's not the same situation. You don't know what you're talking about.
Vanguard and PotBS are two very, very different games, run by two very, very different companies, with two very, very different goals. Vanguard wanted to be the next "Huge Thing", while PotBS wants to please its niche. Sigil was wildly incompetent; Flying Lab Studios is not. Vanguard was a shoddy product at release that was still reeling from the game being completely redesigned less than a year prior; PotBS has been a very consistent game through and through, only adding avatar combat when they felt it could be achieved with reasonable success.
You're wrong, it's not the same situation. SOE is a great publisher; they have the best front-end in the market. Their patcher is much smoother and faster than Blizzard's, their launchpads have a lot of functionality (Dev Chats, current information, server status listed in the launchpad).-
I just hope you are right, I have not read too much into what FLS has outlined as their main goals of success with their subscriber base.
If I remember right, Vanguard launched with what, about 200k subs but only about 90k or so remained after the first month - this was viewed as a big failure.
Now if PotBS retains about a 100k sub base well after launch, how will SOE treat FLS, as a success or failure? Mind you I don't know too much detail about the situation, but I do know publishing costs. If they are not able to pull in the revenue to support SOE publishing, do you think they will not change their direction to pull in more subs?
I am just hoping FLS has enough coin to keep SOE's grubby mittens away from the changing the game to gain more subs is all.
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No, you are completely wrong. Sigil FAILED then SOE stepped in and saved them. If Vanguard would've succeeded at launch, SOE never would've purchased Vanguard, etc.
Regardless, I have no faith in this game anyways because it's so Niche. It also doesn't seem as though there is much depth or freedom either.
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