Ever since Portalus announced it’d be shutting down eight-year-old sailing MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Sea, we’ve found ourselves instead covering efforts to save the game, all backed up by the studio itself. As we’ve previously reported, Portalus told players the company was losing its primary coder, leaving nobody to maintain the game; consequently, the studio planned to make a clean break and shut the game down at the end of September. But it also offered the game up to any player-led non-profit corporation willing to take over the title and keep it running for the players, which is exactly what happened, and Portalus then agreed to keep the servers going as long as it can as the community works out the takeover.
This past weekend, the studio went further in outlining its plans. “I am happy to announce that PotBS will continue to be available for the month of October,” Portalus dev Fodderboy writes.
“The combination of contributions from players and management have secured enough funding to support the game through the month allowing companies currently evaluating the game for future operation more time to make their assessments and/or preparations. […] I’d like to thank the game community for their generous support which was instrumental in securing this extension. The added time will hopefully accelerate the process of securing a new operator for the game while allowing the community as a whole more time to enjoy the game.”
Portalus does warn about downtime on October 1st (today) as “service changes” are implemented.
Incidentally, I never played this game seriously, and it seems official screenshots are hard to come by legitimately. Anybody have any? Send ’em to One Shots!
