Well by now it’s old news for those of you following the Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS). Sony Online Entertainment has joined forces with Flying Lab Software to form a publishing partnership. The whole deal is being filed under what is called “platform publishing”. Russell Williams from Flying Lab Software explains it well.
So what is “Platform Publishing”? It’s a partnership program in which SOE and an independent developer work together to release a game. It’s very different from SOE’s main publishing efforts, where they develop the games internally (i.e. Everquest 2, Star Wars: Galaxies). Instead the developer makes the game, SOE publishes it, and together we divvy up the various responsibilities.
Here is the breakdown:
Flying Lab Software
• Game Development
• Community
• Customer Support
• Server OperationsSony Online Entertainment
• Billing
• Launcher
• Retail Distribution
• Localization
• Marketing
Now to me this sounds too good to be true. FLS retains complete ownership and control over the game while receiving the benefits of a major publisher from SOE. In return SOE receives minor revenue and… that seems to be it. According to FLS, since they funded the entire game themselves, SOE will receive only a small portion of the profits which leaves FLS “strong and independent”.
With the latest big news from SOE being the acquisition of Sigil’s assets and the exposure of their whole deal turning out to be nothing more than a facade things are definitely shaky when MMO fans hear the words “SOE” and “partnership” in the same sentence. Personally I won’t buy into the cynical doomsay. I really do believe FLS when they say they are truly in control. A small and truly, in the grand scheme of things, unknown company like FLS has nothing to gain by lying to their prospective player base. Right now PotBS has huge competition and future competition. Lord of the Rings Online is only three months into release and major titles like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online are just around the corner in 2008. The very last thing these guys want is a failure.
I haven’t really spoken much about my plans for PotBS and that’s because honestly I am scared. I am really building this game up in my mind to be amazing. With the various stories you can choose for your character, fighting styles, ships, amazing crafting system and more, this game is on the verge of being the best of any MMO I’ve dreamed of playing. Just imagining myself sailing as the Captain of a pirate crew in the vast ocean in a completely PVP conquerable world gives me chills. Can you imagine the fear on a player merchant vessel as your sails come into view just over the horizon? The adrenaline rush you’ll get as you come about and unleash the fury of your irons into the broadside of another ship. The prospects of attacking ports with other ships and pillaging the outposts of enemy nations all for the sake of personal gain. Who can say no to their crafting system? A completely player driven economy right down to the player-made rum!
So you can see I am already completely sold on Pirates of the Burning Sea. I want to play this game. I want this game to be amazing. This whole deal between SOE and FLS can be a good thing guys. It has to be…
Thanks, Keen… I had just gotten my anxiety for this game out of my system… how dare you. 😛
In all honesty, I have high hopes for this one too. I really don’t think we’ll be disappointed… I mean, we don’t have a fram of reference for it. 🙂 *crosses fingers*
Oh no!!! Not SOE!!! The last time I said this, the Vanguard Forum crowd jumped all over me because they were happy SOE was coming forward to provide, billing, a launcher, distribution, marketing etc…. without being involved in the game development. They were happy because they were finally going to get to play the game after following it in the forums for so long. I too was happy but a tad leery.
Obviously SOE has the know how and infrastructure to help out development teams get their product to market. It takes years of work to get a game to market and money can be very tight at times. I’m sure SOE has provided some needed cash to the game team so SOE can earn some money later on down the road. Not a bad deal for SOE since they haven’t taken any risk developing the game until now. They have seen the product and SOE thinks the game will have a following.
I for one like the non fantasy game idea. It reminds of a game named Uncharted Waters that had success on Super NES. I believe Uncharted Waters is going down the MMO road eventually.
Not having seen the contract, what are the Devs giving up to SOE? None of us know anything at this point. A year from now will SOE have a right of first refusal when the Devs want to move on to something else. If SOE does not receive X amount of profit are they given a larger part of the pie with more control? None of these questions and many more are not answered at this point.
By the way, how well is Vanguard doing right now? Who is at fault? The Devs or SOE. I’m not sure because after Beta testing the game I decided not to play it.
Once SOE gets control and they will get total control, I question what direction the ships will be sailing. But that does not mean I and many others will not take a shot at the game and that is what SOE is banking on.
Just some of my thoughts.