Pirates of the Burning Sea delayed, beta to be expanded at end of June

Today we’ve got a mix of good and bad news for followers of Flying Lab Software‘s upcoming MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea. In his latest developer blog, Flying Lab’s Russell Williams revealed that they will not be able to meet their shipping schedule and won’t be shipping Pirates of the Burning Sea in June.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the beta will be expanded “dramatically” at the end of June. According to Williams, this coincides with the team finally getting their hands on the original version of the game that they planned to ship for R1. Here’s more on the beta from Williams:

This isn’t an open beta — we view that as entirely a marketing device and we still have serious, large-scale testing to do of the economy, the Conquest system, and other features. But it is a huge expansion of our beta population. Currently, to get into the beta, you have to either be crazy lucky or have a beta key. Now your odds will get a lot more reasonable.

It seems that the delay is due to some wrangling over the contract. “We have a lot of long-range plans for the game after we launch and we intend to be working on it for quite a few years,” said Williams. “So I’m not going to rush a contract in order to ‘get it done’ – it has to be done right.”

The delay will also give the developers some more time to work on game details like bug fixes and performance enhancements, plus it’s always better to come out with a complete and kick-ass game than releasing a bug-filled one early. For Williams’ full post, click on the “read” link below.

Today we’ve got a mix of good and bad news for followers of Flying Lab Software‘s upcoming MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea. In his latest developer blog, Flying Lab’s Russell Williams revealed that they will not be able to meet their shipping schedule and won’t be shipping Pirates of the Burning Sea in June.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the beta will be expanded “dramatically” at the end of June. According to Williams, this coincides with the team finally getting their hands on the original version of the game that they planned to ship for R1. Here’s more on the beta from Williams:

This isn’t an open beta — we view that as entirely a marketing device and we still have serious, large-scale testing to do of the economy, the Conquest system, and other features. But it is a huge expansion of our beta population. Currently, to get into the beta, you have to either be crazy lucky or have a beta key. Now your odds will get a lot more reasonable.

It seems that the delay is due to some wrangling over the contract. “We have a lot of long-range plans for the game after we launch and we intend to be working on it for quite a few years,” said Williams. “So I’m not going to rush a contract in order to ‘get it done’ – it has to be done right.”

The delay will also give the developers some more time to work on game details like bug fixes and performance enhancements, plus it’s always better to come out with a complete and kick-ass game than releasing a bug-filled one early. For Williams’ full post, click on the “read” link below.