Flying Labs Inks Deal With SOE

[voodoo13]

First of all, the Contract is signed. A joint press release will be going out tomorrow morning, but it's important to all of us here that our community hear it first and here it straight from us. So without further ado:

Pirates of the Burning Sea will be published in partnership with Sony Online Entertainment's Platform Publishing. This is an important deal for Flying Lab Software and we know how passionate our community is about this issue. So before you start posting your thoughts on our forums, let me share how this particular arrangement differs from publishing deals you may have read about in the past.

So what is "Platform Publishing"? It's a partnership program in which SOE and an independent developer work together to release a game. It's very different from SOE's main publishing efforts, where they develop the games internally (i.e. Everquest 2, Star Wars: Galaxies). Instead the developer makes the game, SOE publishes it, and together we divvy up the various responsibilities.

Here is the breakdown:

Flying Lab Software

* Game Development
* Community
* Customer Support
* Server Operations

Sony Online Entertainment

* Billing
* Launcher
* Retail Distribution
* Localization
* Marketing

Sigil swore that SOE wouldn't be taking them over, and now Flyinglab is getting published by SOE. Does the life of Pirate of the Burning Sea look short? Or is SOE just trying to create an mmo monopoly?

[Vorph]

Unless you're a raving lunatic SOE hater, I can't see how this is anything but win-win.

You should also read the entire press release before asking those questions.

[Drtyrm]

I wasn't overly impressed by how they marketed Vanguard. What are the chances they'll do a better job for PotBS?

[Lenardo]

Sigil's deal was almost exactly the same way as this one from initial reading.

sigil's deal included server operations as well.

time will tell but if they put out a Quality product, they shouldn't NEED to sell it to soe, unlike sigil, which NEEDED to sell it.

[Vorph]

Won’t Sony end up buying you out the way they did Vanguard?
The difficulties Sigil had with Vanguard have been pretty well publicized at this point. We’re in a very different situation financially and have no fear of shutting down. A lot of independent studios have just enough money to shove the game out the door and then go bankrupt if they don’t have their next project already financed. We are very, very fortunate to not be in that situation. We’re self-financed and beholden to no one. Flying Lab is in good shape. We made this decision because we wanted to, not because we had to.

Since I have no reason yet to not believe what Flying Lab says, I see the deal as a good thing.

As for the marketing I would imagine it comes down to deciding whether even a half-assed job by SOE is still better than what they feel they could do themselves. Just getting into additional trade shows is probably a pretty good benefit to them, and hopefully the marketing turns out to be better than half-assed too.

[Laerazi]

Seems like Vanguard was SOE's testbed for their "Platform Publishing" division; that, or they came up with it as a result of worthing with Sigil. Either way, it seems like a great deal for smaller companies trying to get their games setup and advertised without having to worry about all of the costs/experience/etc. involved. Obviously SOE is benefiting as well by increasing their revenue and buying out failing MMOs (if that's even a good thing, who knows).

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Smed is a MMO Pimp. Smed keep your bitches in line!

The Paparazzi took this picture of Smed getting ready for the SOE Fanfare:

[QforQ]

I think it is a good deal for FLS and I'm excited to see them at this year's Fan Faire

[Soygen]

EDIT Nevermind. Helps if I read the whole article.

[brekk]

SOE didnt push marketing for Vanguard, because it would be direct competition for EQ2.

I can't imagine SOE not pushing POTBS with everything they've got, this game is their chance to monoploize a new genre of MMO without competition. With the current popularity of pirates in mass media and a solid marketing campaign this game should be a Total Slam Dunk.

Edit: Not to mention every review, and playtest I have read have given the game stellar marks.

[Olio]

I think it dooms the game to all access pass.

[Cadrid]

The big difference between Sigil and FLS is that FLS didn't get dropped by another major publisher and find itself floundering for support. Yes, this reads very similarly to when Brad revealed SOE would be publishing Sigil, but the circumstances are radically different. Does this mean the game isn't in trouble? Not necessarily; I haven't been following the title or the team with more than mild curiosity, so I have no clue what may be going on behind closed doors. I would have more confidence in them actually shipping (no pun intended) a good MMO that is independent of the Station Pass than just pawn off POTBS to SoE and try to recoup their losses as best as possible.

[Aegorian]

Originally Posted by Olio

I think it dooms the game to all access pass.

not necessarily. Gods and Heroes is being published by SOE, but it wont be on the pass.

Regardless, dooming this game to the same fate of Vanguard is a bit premature. Vanguard had glaring flaws up front that made the game unviable to market. If the game is polished and works right, there's no reason FL can't remain independent of SOE. It was the same with Sigil, really, they just shit the bed on that one. As for the marketing aspect, i agree that SOE did a shoddy job with Vanguard. I dont pretend to fully understand how that relationship works tho. I cant imagine that SOE was in charge of the marketing. I would bet they were just the ones who made it happen based on what Sigil told them to do and the finances surrounding it must have been split in some way. When Sigil has no money to market, SOE sits on their hands until they're told to do something. Either that or SOE ponies up the finances to market the game, which would have placed Sigil even more in bed with SOE (something i truly believe they were trying to avoid until it became inevitable). Making predictions at this point is kind of moot given the circumstances are wholly different.

[Linus]

If nothing else this deal gets the game more publicity in the MMO community than if they had just published/distributed it themselves or with someone else ....

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by Aegorian

not necessarily. Gods and Heroes is being published by SOE, but it wont be on the pass.

PotBS will be on the station access pass, that's been confirmed. Not sure why anyone would call that being 'doomed' though. Everyone's been saying since the price hike that the station pass needs more value to be worthwhile. Between PotBS, EQ2 (which I wouldn't mind playing again, occasionally), and the upcoming spy mmo, I could definitely see myself going with the pass subscription.