PRESS RELEASE: AHOY MATEYS! PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA™ SCHEDULED TO SET SAIL WORLDWIDE JANUARY 22

Gamers Experience Action and Adventure on the High Seas Circa 1720 in New Online PC game

SAN DIEGO, CA & SEATTLE, WA – October 5, 2007 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC’s (SOE) Platform Publishing label and Flying Lab Software LLC (FLS) announced today Pirates of the Burning Sea™, is scheduled to launch worldwide on January 22, 2008. The hotly anticipated MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game, featuring high seas action and swashbuckling adventure in a bold world of pirates and plunder, is being developed by Seattle-based FLS and published by Platform Publishing.

“We are eagerly anticipating the day we can raise the anchor and set sail with Pirates of the Burning Sea. Our team’s hard work and dedication, and that of our partners at SOE’s Platform Publishing group, is going to result in a fantastic gameplay experience for PC gamers,” said Russell Williams, CEO, Flying Lab Software. “We are looking forward to bringing this game to fruition, and appreciate the support from our dedicated community in helping us to develop a top-notch game.”

As a captain in Pirates of the Burning Sea, you can choose among the French, Spanish, English, or Pirate nations, playing a naval officer, a freetrader, a privateer, or a pirate as you like. Action–filled ship battles take place at sea, where players can destroy or board and seize their competitors’ ship. On land, a world of swashbuckling adventure awaits full of sword-swinging action. The unique player-driven economy means players can be a captain of industry too, running mines, lumber mills, shipyards and other large-scale operations to produce the tons of goods needed to supply every player in the game with what they need. Through the player-generated content system, players can create their own sail and flag designs to display in game and even model their own ships.

“The vast amount of player-created content and the intense strategy required in Pirates of the Burning Sea sets it apart from any other MMO on the market,” said D Tim Granich, Sr. Global Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. “Gamers will be donning their captain’s gear and eagerly awaiting their next battle on land or sea.”

The game takes place in the New World circa 1720, a dramatic time of conflict and riches that features action for every play style, from epic ship combat, to piracy, to building economic empires or sword-swinging adventure. With more than one thousand missions per nation, dozens of ports to explore, and the entire Caribbean as their domain, players will find an online experience like no other.

Pre-orders are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 23rd. Players that pre-order will receive an invitation to the “Pre-Boarding Party” giving them access to the live game 15 days prior to launch. During this time, players can level up to 20 and keep their characters after launch, with a purchase of the game and paid monthly subscription. Players who pre-order and purchase the game will also receive a “captain’s best friend” – known to any good pirate as a blue and yellow parrot – as well as a powerful weapon suited to their fighting style and an original game soundtrack CD complete with 60 minutes of pirate-themed music.

Pirates of the Burning Sea game features:
• Join one of four nations (Pirate, English, French, or Spanish)
• Every player is the captain of their very own ship in massive naval battles
• Duel other players to control more than 80 conquerable ports in the Caribbean
• Explore the world and make a name for yourself in more than 1,000 missions
• Economy driven by players, who manufacture and sell all ships and equipment found in the game
• Build, capture, and customize more than 50 historical ships
• Design your own flags and sails
• Choose from 3 different styles of swashbuckling combat – deadly and formal Fencing, flashy, dual-wielding Florentine or rowdy and treacherous Dirty Fighting
• Participate in epic sea battles with up to 25 players on a side

For more information on Pirates of the Burning Sea, log onto www.piratesoftheburningsea.com or the community site at www.burningsea.com


Launch Date blog entry10.04.07 by Rev

Here it is: January 22nd, 2008!

That’s our launch date. For Real.

It’s been a very long trip. We started this project in the fall of 2002, so by the time we launch, Pirates of the Burning Sea will have been in development for more than five years. Even our closed beta program has been running since December of 2005, so that’s coming up on its two-year anniversary.

During that time we have grown from a handful of people to more than seventy full-time staff. The scale of the project has grown as well. When we started, there weren’t even going to be human avatars! Ports were just a menu where you clicked options. The whole game was much, much smaller and a lot less interesting.

At this point, we have a big fat slab of game: a giant, player-driven economy; incredible ship combat; swashbuckling swordfighting; a thousand missions; eighty towns; a conquerable world; and more adventure than we ever expected. Behind the scenes, we are working really hard to fix bugs, adjust gameplay, balance and tune the numbers, and generally get the game ready for launch. There’s still a ton of work to do and we’re hard at it.

Is January 22nd a long way away? It sure doesn’t feel like it to us! But if it does to you, consider picking up a preorder box when they go on sale October 23rd. Besides getting a soundtrack CD to get you in the mood, you’ll get exclusive in-game weapons and an in-game parrot for your shoulder.

Oh, and you’ll also get to start playing on January 7th.

Yep! For two full weeks you can be in the game and playing your real character, learning the ropes, getting your economic empire spun up, and preparing for the bigger battles ahead.

Preordering the game gets you a lot of great stuff. And we really appreciate it as well. The more preorders we get, the more the retailers know that people want to play this game. So help us and help yourself: preorder October 23rd, get your two-week headstart locked in, and be ready to play a few days after New Year’s.

I know there’s another question you want answered. Yes, we will be doing a very large-scale beta when we’re closer to launch. Far more people will get a chance to play than ever have before. The NDA will go away and the world will get a real look at what we’ve been making. We aren’t ready to announce the details of this mega beta period, but look for more news later this fall.

Finally, I want to thank our community for hanging in there. Many of you have been with us on this journey for years. Some came early, wandered off, and returned. Others have shown up only recently. We’re grateful for all of you. From the start we have tried to be as open as possible about what we’re building. Interacting directly with our community has been a pillar of our development from the day we announced the project. Your feedback has helped us immeasurably and your enthusiasm has kept us inspired even when the going was tough. At long last, we’re almost ready to show you what all these years and tears and dreams have wrought.

In January, you will sail the Burning Sea!
—John Scott Tynes
Producer, Flying Lab Software