The lure of piracy is clear: pirates are the rock stars of the sea, nicking what they want, doing things with wenches and cultivating complicated beards. For the last three years Flying Lab Software have promised that their MMORPG, Pirates of the Burning Sea, would give us all the case of scurvy we so rightly desire, and at last they're about to set sail
A couple of weeks ago we held a small Q&A on IRC with a few large gaming communities / guilds who had shown an interest in Pirates of the Burning Sea. This was the first of many such events (we hope), and it was a great success.
Three of us attended the chat. David "Taelorn" Hunt (Game Designer and ship extraordinaire), Troy "Aether" Hewitt (Director, Community Relations) and yours truly (skivvy).
A lot of very pertinent questions were asked, and so we have decided to share the log of the event with our beloved community.
To be honest, I do hope that this game does generally well, because pirates games are awesome.
And the fact that they use Sid Meier's Pirates as inspiration (just look at the graphics, even the in-game fonts!).
GDC '07 Hands On
"Large Scale World Control PVP
Just to touch on what is probably the most intriguing feature of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the port control PVP aspect could take the MMO world by storm. Each of the four factions control several forts in the Caribbean. Owning a port allows members of that faction to build structures and harvest resources used in crafting items, along with various other benefits. Each port has an unrest level, which can be increased by members of other factions running missions or sinking their ships. Once the unrest level reaches the boiling point, large scale conflict breaks out.
This leads to a three day PVP battle around the port, where players of all factions can come and join in the fray. After three days, the top twenty-five members of each faction are pulled into a massive battle to determine who owns the port.
The beauty of the system is that even if you don't want to fight other players you can still run missions to contribute to the unrest points of any particular harbor."
While the ship combat may be like that of Eve online's, the inclusion of actual avatar combat on land seperates it. Also the idea of a customizable home (can't remember if that will be in at launch) is also a draw for alot of people.
This doesn't have to be a niche game. I for one have never had much of an intrests in ships, pirates, or the time period itself. However I am drawn to this game Just because of the fun factor. And if it does end up being a niche game, it may end up bringing people into that niche because of that reason.
The game will undoubtedly grab a niche crowd, which is nothing to scoff at. A niche crowd can be as high as 200,000 subs with over half a million retails boxes sold.
My personal theory is that this game will be much like Eve Online in terms of gameplay but set in a time where more people can relate and thus draw in more subs. MMORPGs may have trouble gaining momentum in stocks but remember these companies make WAY more money than console games that sell the same numbers because of the monthly fee's. My guess is that this games stock will slowly rise and rise until its released where it will remain flat. Only time will tell though.
I agree with GoblinMerchant, it is very hard to gain any traction in the MMO market, especially with WOW soaking up all the sales. Most MMOs don't sell that well, most end up becoming niche titles and if this game doesn't do well in the first year, the severs will shut down, eliminating any hope of aggregated sales over a long lifetime.
Yes but fortunately this sim-exchange is trying to forecast lifetime sales. So if you agree that it will eventually sell 10 million copies then you should also in theory be willing to pay that much for the stock, or at least you should expect it to get that high. If on the other hand you are trying to say it will not sell that many copies because the PS3 will never reach the sales numbers of the PS2 I am inclined to agree.
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