Pirates of the Burning Sea Goes Free

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Pirates of the Burning Sea Goes Free


Pirates of the Burning Sea has announced that it will soon join the swelling ranks of free-to-play MMOGs.

Free-to-play is all the rage these days, and why not? The charred plains that lie between the Dungeons & Dragons Online [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com], it appears to be an increasingly attractive option for many MMOG studios.

Pirates of the Burning Sea, which debuted in January 2008, is the latest game to roll the dice with the no-subscription model. announcement [http://www.flyinglab.com/] yesterday, although the studio claimed the decision had actually been made near the end of 2009. The free version of the game will give players "the complete PotBS experience," with a few limitations to things like character and dockyard slots. Microtransaction-based upgrades and items will be available for purchase, while subscriptions in the form of the "Captain's Club" will still be available to serious fans, offering experience bonuses, better loot chances and other extras.

"Captain's Club members and anyone who has ever subscribed to PotBS will automatically have access to every account upgrade that free accounts do not have (i.e. character slots, structure slots, dockyard slots); we don't want to take anything away from the players who have supported PotBS since we launched," the studio said. "The bottom line is that we want to offer the game to everyone for free while still making sure that our current and former subscribers are recognized for their support."

Flying Lab didn't reveal when the free-to-play changeover will take place but said "all the necessary tech is completed and is in testing, and we're very close to starting the countdown." Want to buckle some swashes on the cheap? Find out more at burningsea.com [http://www.burningsea.com/page/news/article&article_id=271038]!


Permalink
 

lockeslylcrit

New member
Dec 28, 2008
350
0
0
PotBS has always been one of my favorites in the MMO market. The combination of Sid Meier's Pirates! and an MMO is great. Sadly, they just cant compete with the likes of WoW for subscribers.

Harbinger_ said:
*facepalm*
 

SomebodyNowhere

New member
Dec 9, 2009
989
0
0
I suppose it was only a matter of time for PotBS to go free to play. Back when I played it it was a decent game(best part was the ship battles), but the amount of time you were given for the trial wasn't really long enough to do too much. Maybe I'll mess around with it again.
 

Pandalisk

New member
Jan 25, 2009
3,248
0
0
Free to play is the way to go, i used to never get into the MMORPG games or any online monthly subscription game, thats changing now, the more these games go from subscription to free to play the more of a closer look ill pay attention to these types of games.
 

Manicotti

New member
Apr 10, 2009
523
0
0
lockeslylcrit said:
Harbinger_ said:
*facepalm*
I second that. This "first" bullshit should be a *more* bannable offense.

On topic, this news makes me happy. I followed the development of PotBS throughout its beta and release, but never had the opportunity to actually play it. Now I have some free time, I can make up for that.

In other news...what's with all these MMOs becoming free?
 

Quad08

New member
Oct 18, 2009
5,000
0
0
As a fellow pirate, I feel it is my sworn duty to sign up for this game and give it a try!
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
0
0
Yay for free to play! Always good to see more to do ith my spare time!
 

wasalp

New member
Dec 22, 2008
512
0
0
Manicotti said:
lockeslylcrit said:
Harbinger_ said:
*facepalm*
I second that. This "first" bullshit should be a *more* bannable offense.

On topic, this news makes me happy. I followed the development of PotBS throughout its beta and release, but never had the opportunity to actually play it. Now I have some free time, I can make up for that.

In other news...what's with all these MMOs becoming free?
its profitable :)
 

maturin

New member
Jul 20, 2010
702
0
0
Aw hells yeah. I loved messing around in boats, but couldn't put in the time and effort to justify 30 bucks a month. Sure hope I can dig up the CDs from somewhere.
 

GothmogII

Possessor Of Hats
Apr 6, 2008
2,215
0
0
Here's the thing, I'd pay full price for a boxed or digital copy of an MMO without fees to begin with. I don't really understand why a game like Guild Wars is unique in this regard, but, wouldn't it make more sense to work with that kind of model from the get go rather than scrabbling to get people to play later on when the game starts failing?
 

ElephantGuts

New member
Jul 9, 2008
3,520
0
0
Well that's interesting. A good reason to start playing again if I ever want to; the same deal all for free. Can't really beat that.
 

KeyMaster45

Gone Gonzo
Jun 16, 2008
2,846
0
0
I'm sorry to say that when I see an MMO go F2P I can't help but receive the message "This is our last ditch effort to not go bankrupt".

More often than not the F2P of an MMO is more a demo and than it is being allowed to actually play it in its entirety for free. Its one reason why I somewhat groan when I come across the F2P's that aren't from Korea because I know even though it looks interesting I'll only be allowed to play long enough for me to think "huh I could enjoy this" and pay for their "extra" content only to find out soon after it was all lies and empty promises and that no one was playing their game for a reason.

To be quite honest I've only enjoyed one F2P game in the last 2-3 years and that was Wizard 101, which is kinda sad cause it's supposed to be a kid's game and it somehow managed to not suck despite being F2P. Maybe its just because I'm a sucker for turn based combat, but I'd have played the hell out of that game if I wasn't already so fiercely addicted to WoW. :3