Tag: Pirates of the Burning Sea

Pirates of the Burning Sea Registration Opens


potbs

Pirates of the Burning Sea is being rebuilt! At least that’s what the lizard people ushering in the new world order want you to think. Way back when, Flying Lab Software announced that they were parting ways with Sony Online Entertainment and moving their game over to Portalus Games. Since then, everything has been rather quiet on the western front. It appears that while existing players were able to transfer over to Portalus’ services, registration for new users has been down for some time.

While the official website still shows an under construction notice, it directs players to the Portalus website where they can register an account, make payments, and download the game client. If you’ve been waiting to get in since the SOE servers shut down, now is your chance.

(Source: Portalus)

 

Pirates of the Burning Sea Leaving Sony Online Entertainment


chrome 2012-12-16 23-02-46-90

File this one under “didn’t see that coming.” Pirates of the Burning Sea will soon be leaving Sony Online Entertainment’s list of MMOs, and thankfully not because it is shutting down. After much review and consideration on at least one of the two party’s behalf, the two developers have agreed to part ways, and Pirates of the Burning Sea will migrate to a new host. Starting January 31st, PotBS will be hosted through Portalus Games, a new studio made up of ex-Flying Lab employes.

You will be able to transfer your character at the Portalus website, and you’ll need to do so before January 31st. None of your SOE account data will be transferred. You won’t, however, be able to access Pirates of the Burning Sea membership with your Station All Access Pass, however.

(Source: Portalus)

Station Price Dropping To Little Over 1 Subscription: $19.99/Month


Sony Station access is an excellent deal, and it’s about to get even greater. Normally priced at $29.99, or the cost of about two Station subscriptions, Sony announced at E3 that the price will drop to $19.99, or 1 and 1/3rd the cost of a subscription to one of Sony’s MMOs. The announcement was made at E3 today, with no specific date other than “soon.”

For those unfamiliar with Station Access, the service grants players access to:

  1. Access to all of SOE’s titles:
  1. DC Universe
  2. Everquest
  3. Everquest II
  4. Everquest Online Adventures (Playstation 2)
  5. Pirates of the Burning Sea (membership perks)
  6. Planetside
  7. Star Wars Galaxies
  8. Vanguard
  9. Free Realms (membership perks)
  • Additional character slots for Vanguard, Everquest, and Everquest II
  • Bonus adventure packs.
  • More features added as new content is released.
    • It’s important to note: You MUST own the game in order to receive a subscription to it. You don’t have to buy Pirates of the Burning Sea or Free Realms, but you have to buy Everquest, DC Universe, etc in order to gain access. The pass covers the subscription, not the purchase of the client if one is required.
    Good news? Bad news? Sign of more downgrading to come? Hopefully not.

    Burn The Sea For Free: PotBS Is Now Free To Play


    Generally piracy gets you imprisoned by the RIAA...

    Legally speaking, Flying Lab is required to give players 30 days notice before making changes to the subscription and payment system for Pirates of the Burning Sea, which they surpassed with flying colors thanks to the presence of some game busting bugs, not to mention the Thanksgiving weekend. After a long wait, players can finally play Pirates of the Burning Sea for free…partially.

    As far as content goes, free players are restricted from premium missions, which can be purchased at the shop. Otherwise, the system is pretty traditional. Character slots, dockyard slots, ship storage slots, economy slots, ship insurance, and a few other things must be purchased from the item store. Premium accounts get a bump in the restrictions, and premium is automatically applied to those who subscribed in the past (with good account standing) and those who subscribe for even just a month. Captain’s Club members (the $15 a month crowd), gain full access to the game, with added bonuses of a 20% discount to everything in the cash shop, automatic access to the premium missions, and a 10% bonus to loot, experience, and faction standing.

    You can read the differences here: http://www.burningsea.com/page/f2p

    If you’ve been holding off playing Pirates of the Burning Sea, now is the best time to get in. You can’t go much lower than free.

    Pirates of the Burning Sea: F2P Delayed


    Yarrg...

    Bugs! Everyone hates them and yet none of us are willing to tell them that they aren’t paying rent and need to either shape up or ship out. Sure we all talk about bugs behind their back, but apparently it’s not enough as they are still with us. Especially considering that they break hearts, delay everything they touch, and generally annoy the hell out of us.

    For Pirates of the Burning Sea players, the past few weeks have not been great, and the objective date of November 22nd (according to Flying Lab being the earliest possible date, legally, due to disclosure requirements) for the big transition is not being met, and there were a few issues with players being unable to transfer off of closed servers during the recent merger. In the case of the free to play launch, glitches are being blamed, with the developers noting that they would like to spend Thanksgiving with their families, not at work fixing bugs that would have appeared had they launched today.

    The team is looking at the week after Thanksgiving for launch, which you can read more about here: http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77188

     

    Looking Back, Moving Forward: September 2010


    True next gen capabilities.

    It’s time to change the MMO Calendar, which can only mean it’s time for another Looking Back, Moving Forward. September brought upon us life, as well as death, and a whole lot of free to play.

    It’s been over a month since Earth Eternal shut down, following Sparkplay’s demise. Even though the game was sold off during an auction back at the end of August, there hasn’t been much word out of Earth Eternal’s Facebook or Twitter pages. MMO Fallout is still looking for news on this ongoing story, including just who bought up the game to begin with!

    Speaking of delayed action, although Lord of the Rings Online in North America launched its free to play turnover on September 10th, its equivalent in Europe, hosted by Codemasters, has yet to follow. Going off of claims of lack of preparation, Codemasters is still giving no concrete date on when the transition will take place.

    Speaking of free to play titles, Sony’s Pirates of the Burning Sea announced its transition to free to play, following Everquest II Extended and Lord of the Rings Online. There is no set date, but Pirates will be following the formula of its predecessor from SOE, Everquest II, with the cash shop.

    Generally we’ve had some sort of prior notice to a game shutting down, usually between one and four months, sometimes longer. When Realtime Worlds announced that All Points Bulletin was shutting down, they gave us one week’s notice, with no real date given at the time. All Points Bulletin shut down just 90 days after it launched, making it the shortest lived (launched) mmo in history. Exteel, the mech-based MMO, was NCsoft’s latest MMO to shut down, a free to play venture with a cash shop and, as some players referred to it, a “pay to win” system. Exteel’s shut down, unlike APB’s, was rather unsurprising due to NCsoft’s past actions with the title.

    Cryptic Studios revealed why the Klingon faction in Star Trek Online will not be pumped full of content to the point where it rivals that of the Federation: Because there aren’t enough people playing Klingon to justify setting resources on it. Of course, few players play Klingon, in a grating circular motion, because there isn’t enough content for the faction.

    Star Wars: The Clone Wars Adventures launched this month, to an odd reaction. Disregarding the idea that this is technically a kids game, much of the reaction appears to be from people far outside this game’s intended audience. As I pointed out in my article, there’s a very good reason you don’t see professional journalists going out and reviewing Imagine: Party Babyz.

    Mortal Online’s Henrik claimed that the upcoming Epic Patch will be so big and change the game so drastically that it will be like Mortal Online 2. The so-called Epic Patch is set to go live at an unconfirmed date, but will contain everything including a new patcher, higher resolution, new inventory, new AI, new game master capabilities, and more.

    The lawsuit between Quest Online and David Allen is finally over, with both sides wiping post after post off of the internet. Following the recent settlement, a few MMO Fallout viewers noticed that both Derek Smart and David Allen have had blog posts and comments on third party websites wiped clear, perhaps part of the settlement.

    Final Fantasy XIV launched at the end of the month to mixed reactions, but luckily with Square Enix backing the title there is no chance of FFXIV heading underwater by the end of next month (November). The latest installment into the Final Fantasy MMO franchise won’t be making Aion or World of Warcraft flinch, but it will maintain a health population for many years to come. Those who would like to check out the game can do so via buddy invites.

    Pirates Of The Burning Sea Heading Towards Eff Too Pea


    I wonder what Lief Erikson thought about microtransactions...

    Technically the Eastern Free to Play grinders were the first to make the statement, but when Turbine brought Dungeons and Dragons Online back from the brink of disaster by turning it into a hybrid cash-shop-VIP system, and turned it into an out of control money machine, that moment was where the industry started taking notice. Over the past year, making the free to play shift has undoubtedly saved a number of MMOs, including Alganon with a huge influx of new players trying out Lord of the Rings Online and Everquest II (both of which claim they’re games were doing just fine, thank you).

    Pirates of the Burning Sea hasn’t been in the MMO Fallout news scope very much, and with the latest expansion launching recently Flying Lab Software announced that the MMO will be heading towards a f2p model fairly soon. There is no set date currently, as of the announcement, but Flying Lab has promised more information to come.

    As for F2P, all of the necessary tech is completed and is in testing, and we’re very close to starting the countdown. We’re excited as can be about it, and we’re looking forward to writing the next chapter of Pirates of the Burning Sea with you.

    More on Pirates of the Burning Sea as it appears.

    Looking Back, Moving Forward: June 2010

    I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month and a look forward into the coming month.

    June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers…


    My favorite picture of the month.

    I have decided to retire the Month In Review sessions in replacement for what I call “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” essentially a recap of the month’s highlights.

    June, like any decent bridging sequel, brought more questions to the table than it did answers. There was plenty of recaps to be had, such as this one! All in all, June was an excellent month for information regarding previously low-key MMOs. We received a lot of information on Warhammer 40k, the new Star Wars MMO, an upcoming Mummy MMO, Jumpgate, Lego Universe, Project V13, among others.

    Foremost, happy birthday to some of our old geezers who are still running around.

    WWII Online: Battleground Europe (2001-Present)
    Anarchy Online (2001-Present)
    Star Wars Galaxies (2003-Present)

    Sony kicked off the month with the “official” announcement of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Intending to offer players an experience more akin to Free Realms (and built on the same engine), Clone Wars will follow a similar pricing format, with a multitude of mini-games, activities, pets, and houses for players to engage in. Aimed at a slightly lower age group than your Star Wars Galaxies or The Old Republic, Clone Wars is aiming to hit the net sometime later this year.

    Lord of the Rings Online and Global Agenda are getting a lot more accessible, with the announcement of both games changing subscription models. Lord of the Rings Online will be taking on a freemium model, with the original game offered for free with bonuses, expansions, and more content available in one time purchases, or for a subscription fee. Global Agenda, on the other hand, is going the Guild Wars route, offering the entire game after purchase for no subscription fee.

    June 9th saw the launch of Mortal Online, after a number of delays on the part of Star Vault, with issues of desynchronization, among others, plaguing the servers. Server stability is still an issue with Mortal Online, with a form of compensation on its way from Star Vault.

    All Points Bulletin launched this month, with lead designer EJ Moreland taking a shot at the MMOs opening cash shops, by claiming that APB would not feature a cash shop, ever, before quickly retracting on his statement and saying that Realtime Worlds would only consider cashing in if the community asked for it. Given the response to other cash shop inclusions, expect a cash shop coming to a police department near you.

    Darkfall still loves you, and here at MMO Fallout we love us some Darkfall. Since the title launched last year, Aventurine has been working around the clock trying to bring in new players, and keep them. Those changes have removed the $50 paywall and introduced initially a paid, now free limited time trial. New players will find themselves offered extra protection during their first days of game time, as well as the game constantly being balanced to lower the time it takes for players to become competent in PvP combat.

    And while we’re on the subject of tweaking content to balance gameplay, how about removing a chunk of content for the sake of balance? Such is the case when Flying Lab Software announced that the higher end ships will be removed from Pirates of the Burning Sea for the sake of balancing the lower tiers of ships.

    Not all was great on the western front, however, as this month marked the grand server merger in Everquest, leaving just fourteen of the original servers remaining. With what may just turn 2010 into a year for mergers, Sony later announced mergers for Vanguard, with NCsoft announcing Aion server mergers, both game’s mergers to occur in July.

    There is plenty more that occurred in June, and you can read all about it in the MMO Fallout archives. Until next time, this is Looking Back, Moving Forward.

    Server Merger Off The Port Bow!


    Batten down the hatches!

    Pirates of the Burning Sea launched two years ago this January following an elongated development period on the part of Flying Lab Software. Despite the factors of player run economies, developer immersion, a surprising balance in classes, and player vs player ship combat, the game fell short of a hot launch due to the steep learning curve and lack of documentation for new players. Despite that, reviewers called it innovative, and an example for other MMOs to follow, rather than a “reskinned Everquest.”

    As I have pointed out in the past, reviewers can say what they want, an MMOs’ success comes down to one thing: Player retention. In late 08, in order to increase server populations, Flying Labs shut down seven servers, reducing the final number down to six worldwide servers.

    Well, depending on how you want to see it, the consolidation was either a huge success, or just a temporary fix to a bigger issue. Flying Labs is at it again, and in the latest developer blog, the developer detailed plans to reduce the server count further, to two servers (Antigua and Roberts), one server in North America and one in Europe.

    The servers will be live until March 5th, when they will be taken down. Until then, players are able to transfer their characters to one of the two remaining servers. More on the server merger as it appears.

    Very Much Good Stuff Cheap: Steam

    [Update] The Steam Sale is over as of January 3rd. Better luck next time!


    If Funcom's money was gold-backed...

    It’s time again for the Steam Holiday sale, and that can only mean one thing: MMO Sales to be found all around! Here is a list of the games you can find on sale at Steam this week, all of which should be on sale until January 3rd. You have a week and a half, so don’t put it off too long!

    Please remember that all of these price are in USD.

    [Update] The Steam Sale is over as of January 3rd. Better luck next time!

    Mega Packs:

    More sales after the break!

    Continue reading “Very Much Good Stuff Cheap: Steam”