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Pirates of the Burning Sea Signs With SOE For Publishing
Flying Lab Software has been keeping its upcoming piratical Massively Multiplayer Game, Pirates of the Burning Sea, somewhat close to the chest. There's a Beta running, but outside of the forums and official website information has been thin on the ground. That changed last week with a flurry of posting to the Flying Lab Software site about a number of topics. This week there is big news: the game finally has a publisher. Flying Labs has partnered with SOE's Platform Publishing brand to put out Pirates of the Burning Sea. To clarify, if you're unfamiliar with Platform Publishing, Sony Online Entertainment will only be publishing the game; they will have nothing to do with development. "We had two other paths to launching this fall: going it alone and working with another independent outfit we've been spending time with. Both of these were good options in general (especially the partnership approach, as we really like those guys). But for either of those approaches to work for a fall launch, everything would have to go right the first time and we'd still need some luck. By working with SOE we know it'll just happen."
Nah. They're not selling their IP, they're just contracting with SOE for distribution and hosting.
Sounds like a good deal for all involved; Flying Labs keeps absolute creative control, and assumes the bulk of the financial risks. SOE makes money on the front end, and skims some off the top for hosting...If it flops, they've got very little stake in it, and if it doesn't they'll get a nice bit of cash, as well as positioning themselves as a friend to the independent MMO developer.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Different than Vanguard really... I mean, the publishing deal is probably similar - but the only reason that Vanguard's IP ended up getting acquired is due to the failures of Sigil. Provided the Burning Sea guys are less dynsfunctional (and let's face it - it's pretty hard to be more dysfunctional than Sigil was, according to most reports) I see this being a pretty standard publishing arrangement.
When exactly has SOE meddled with the design of a third party that they were publishing? All of their blunders had to do primarily with IP that they designed themselves. There's a lot of irrational SOE dread out there. Yeah, they screwed up Galaxies - but that was their own game, and you have to think they learned something from that experience.
"You can take our lives, but you can never take our Flerbage!!!!"
Want to quickly head off some of the more reactionary comments that are sure to appear here.
First, Flying Labs (the devs) maintain complete creative control. SOE is literally just publishing it. This won't be a SW:G repeat.
Second, Flying Labs is self financed. They have plenty of cash, and aren't going to have the problems Vanguard did.
SOE has a really bad -- and justly earned -- reputation these days, but it seems like Flying Labs got the deal they needed from them, so I'm thrilled. I've been following this game for like four years now, and they've always been adament about maintaining complete control of their game, and I was starting to get nervous they couldn't find any publisher who'd let them do that.
Want to quickly head off some of the more reactionary comments that are sure to appear here.
First, Flying Labs (the devs) maintain complete creative control. SOE is literally just publishing it. This won't be a SW:G repeat.
Second, Flying Labs is self financed. They have plenty of cash and aren't going to have the problems Vanguard did.
SOE has a really bad -- and justly earned -- reputation these days, but it seems like Flying Labs got the deal they needed from them, so I'm thrilled. I've been following this game for like four years now, and they've always been adament about maintaining complete control of their game, and I was starting to get nervous they couldn't find any publisher who'd let them do that.
Apparently, neither you or the person who modded you up could even be bothered to read the entire summary:
"Sony Online Entertainment will only be publishing the game; they will have nothing to do with development."
Nothing to do with development. As in, no hand in what or when things get patched or upgraded.
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
"Not enough cash apparently, otherwise why involve Sony at all?"
Because they already have the marketing, billing, and distribution services in place for us, so we don't have to do those things. We're good at making games. We don't really want to find out if we're good at marketing or not. With this deal, we don't have to.
Of course, that was in the FA, so I'm sure you already know that and are just ranting. Don't let my facts get in the way of you raging against the machine.
-isildur (PotBS Lead Designer)