Oh boy, those who can't wait to jump at SOE's throats...
OK. SOE are responsible for 2 things: 1. Subscription payment for US and EU countries 2. Publishing of PotBS in USA Read that over again and again. The EU publishing was handed over to another group, mainly as SOE stated to FLS that they didn't have recent experience with launching a game over in the EU (true, they've released many games in the past, yet FLS wanted large coverage with a current publisher who knew the market specifically in the EU). As a result of that, the EU publishing was handed over to Koch Media GmbH, Austria. That was the choice of FLS and SOE were happy with that arrangement. SOE still provide the subscription service and the production and publication handed over to Koch Media. As to why it didn't launch in Spain, no-one's got a clue. The launches in all the other EU countries went great, yet something with Spain just didn't happen. FLS are happy to admit that it went wrong, yet overall things are going great with them. They had their Australian launch to total success, that is going through a different company entirely, without SOE's involvement on the whole. BigPond's covering that over there for FLS.
Well actually, AFAIK the handing over to Koch was SOE's call - they contracted this work out - and FLS were the ones who said "okay then".
But, don't take my word for it - here are some quotes and links from FLS:
Here’s exactly what SOE brings to this that we want:
1) Strong distribution: We want Pirates of the Burning Sea to be in every retail store that carries games. SOE has that down cold.
2) Great localization process: We really want a simultaneous launch in Europe and the US because we think it could do as well over there as over here. Working with SOE gives us the best chance of making that happen.
RUSTY[FLS] SOE only has distribution rights for NA and Europe.
So, as I read it SOE sub-contracted the European Distribution to Koch.
Sorry, but that still makes it their responsibility.
It is up to them to oversee Koch and make sure Koch meets the requirements. If Koch was unable to distribute in Spain then they were well within their rights to sub-contract the Spanish Publishing and Distribution to a different company.
Ultimately though - it is up to them to see that it got done.
If you can show different information I would like to see it?
Oh, and as an aside: In Australia the publisher / distributer is Telstra / Bigpond. You will not find any advertising for PotBS here either - outside the computer community I mean.
(They did advertise heavily in ATOMIC magazine - and the last edition had the Client as a cover disc)
It is not on any shelves (Even in Telstra shops!) either.
The server population here is "light" across the board.
This is particularly bad here as the Client is FREE.
All they would have to do is put a box on the counter with a sign "Please take one!" - they have not even done that.
I'm sorry to say but i think their time has already run out. They released this game without any decent content at all and whats more they continue to mess it up with a series of major flaws.
The most recent being merging and disbanding several servers. Not only did they disband servers but they placed the plays from those servers onto others servers (roberts etc) and unbalanced them heavily.
This problem is not just about the server merge.
This game had major content flaws from day one and they really as a majority, refuse to listen to those players and improve the game.
This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs. I just hope they have the time to do it.
I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.
IMHO, thats exactly what everybody else is doing, even WoW, and specially EvE. The EvE dev's are smart, and the new Fx and hi-res texture is exactly what was needed. Other MMO's like Planetside, Anarchy Online, etc.. also need a hi-res texture pack, but seems theres not money to make it. So these games will die, once the graphics look that outdated, that most people will not understand the screen.
Actually... for Anarchy Online, they are releasing an entire engine update in the not-too-distant future...
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
This game reminds me of Eve a lot, the development team is slowly remaking the game into what the playerbase needs. I just hope they have the time to do it.
I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.
And here's were aligning with SoE pays off for them. Games that SoE publishes and adds to the Station Pass seem to never really die. If Matrix Online is not only still active, but actually publishing updates regularly, then I don't see any major threat to PotBS in the near future.
Comments
Well actually, AFAIK the handing over to Koch was SOE's call - they contracted this work out - and FLS were the ones who said "okay then".
But, don't take my word for it - here are some quotes and links from FLS:
The Press Release:
http://www.burningsea.com/pages/page.php?pageKey=news/article&article_id=10349
and note within that:
Here’s exactly what SOE brings to this that we want:
1) Strong distribution: We want Pirates of the Burning Sea to be in every retail store that carries games. SOE has that down cold.
2) Great localization process: We really want a simultaneous launch in Europe and the US because we think it could do as well over there as over here. Working with SOE gives us the best chance of making that happen.
...
The related thread:
http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24865
Within that thread (post # 62)
http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=459691&postcount=62
RUSTY[FLS] SOE only has distribution rights for NA and Europe.
So, as I read it SOE sub-contracted the European Distribution to Koch.
Sorry, but that still makes it their responsibility.
It is up to them to oversee Koch and make sure Koch meets the requirements. If Koch was unable to distribute in Spain then they were well within their rights to sub-contract the Spanish Publishing and Distribution to a different company.
Ultimately though - it is up to them to see that it got done.
If you can show different information I would like to see it?
Oh, and as an aside: In Australia the publisher / distributer is Telstra / Bigpond. You will not find any advertising for PotBS here either - outside the computer community I mean.
(They did advertise heavily in ATOMIC magazine - and the last edition had the Client as a cover disc)
It is not on any shelves (Even in Telstra shops!) either.
The server population here is "light" across the board.
This is particularly bad here as the Client is FREE.
All they would have to do is put a box on the counter with a sign "Please take one!" - they have not even done that.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
I'm sorry to say but i think their time has already run out. They released this game without any decent content at all and whats more they continue to mess it up with a series of major flaws.
The most recent being merging and disbanding several servers. Not only did they disband servers but they placed the plays from those servers onto others servers (roberts etc) and unbalanced them heavily.
This problem is not just about the server merge.
This game had major content flaws from day one and they really as a majority, refuse to listen to those players and improve the game.
Maybe pirates will make a decent f2p game like Anarchy Online, or Shadowbane :P
I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.
IMHO, thats exactly what everybody else is doing, even WoW, and specially EvE. The EvE dev's are smart, and the new Fx and hi-res texture is exactly what was needed. Other MMO's like Planetside, Anarchy Online, etc.. also need a hi-res texture pack, but seems theres not money to make it. So these games will die, once the graphics look that outdated, that most people will not understand the screen.
Actually... for Anarchy Online, they are releasing an entire engine update in the not-too-distant future...
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I see it more as a case of them treading water, trying to delay the inevitable sinking without trace beneath the waves of mmorpg history.
And here's were aligning with SoE pays off for them. Games that SoE publishes and adds to the Station Pass seem to never really die. If Matrix Online is not only still active, but actually publishing updates regularly, then I don't see any major threat to PotBS in the near future.