Bad news, but maybe also a tiny bit of good news too, for Pirates of the Burning Sea: Over the weekend, Portalus Games announced that it is closing down and that it will no longer be operating the long-running pirate MMORPG as of the end of September.
According to a letter posted to the game’s website, the game’s primary coder is leaving the studio, and no one will remain to maintain the game, ensuring that “the game runs the risk of unexpected and unannounced shut down due to server software failures.” Rather than risk that, Portalus made the announcement now to “allow proper advanced notice.”
And that notice is the silver lining: The company is willing to turn the game over to another company led by the community to keep it going.
“Over the years we have often had community members volunteer to assist with the game only to have to turn them away due to the company’s structure and the legal requirements for compensation that the game could not afford. If a new company were formed as a non-profit corporation representing the game community it would allow for volunteers to contribute to game operation and open the possibility of a much brighter future for the game than can be found with Portalus. To this end we will begin immediately on efforts to organize a new management group. I would encourage those community members interested in joining the effort to form a new company to operate Pirates of the Burning Sea to join the community discussion regarding the subject on the community forum.”
Do your thing, emu people! Save the game!
