I’ll admit it; last week I wasn’t sure if this was worth it any more. I put a lot of work into these things, and I wasn’t sure if people really dug em’. This week, I think things turned out really well. Plus, the Big Story is kickass. Way to go, Flying Lab.
The Big Story
After months and months of radio silence, the folks at Flying Lab Software have come out swinging. Pirates of the Burning Sea finally, finally, finally has a publisher. Pirates of the Burning Sea will be published by Sony Online Entertainment. Though they’re best known for developing games like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, they also publish titles via their ‘Platform Publishing’ label. Gods and Heroes is one title taking advantage of this service, and Vanguard used to be a Platform client, as well. Platform allows SOE to keep another developer in the driver’s, while they handle physical distribution and advertising. Indeed, that is the relationship Flying Lab and SOE will have for Pirates of the Burning Sea.
The announcement lays it out like this:
“Flying Lab Software handles the Game Development, Community, Customer Support, Server Operations. Sony Online Entertainment handles the Billing, Launcher, Retail Distribution, Localization, Marketing.”
I would just like to note that Flying Lab Software has not been quiet or off the radar for months as you allude to in the first sentence of your Big Story. FLS has attracted a following because they have always released a wealth of information to the community via dev logs and interviews. I’m not really sure why SOE picking them up is suddenly putting PotBS on the map, but if brings more pirate… err players into the game then it is welcome.
On a side note about the update, you really started it during a relative lull in the industry. WoW’s expansion hype is about faded, and other than the WAR delay there has been nothing but “small fry” news. Which is good for people like me who like to find good “small fry” news :P
Actually, compared to some of the other MMO’s that are on the way (like Warhammer, Tabula Rasa), Flying Labs is pretty quite, and no, that’s not a criticism of them, they’re a lot smaller than some of those outfits and they have only just gained some publisher marketing muscle which I expect will turn the “quite” around a lot.
Love em or hate em, SOE are pretty good at marketing ;)
I agree, and also like how Michael covers the “small fry” news in these updates, some of the smaller “behind the scenes” news I find a lot more interesting than the bigger marketing/PR driven “news”.
You’re doing a great job with these articles Mike….keep it up.
Just wanted thank you for linking my Vanguard blog in your update this past week. I’ve been enjoying Vanguard (I’m in a tiny minority I know!) and I appreciate the mention.
Thanks!