As pirate mania once-again begins to sweep the nation, the a southwesterly wind brings news from the Burning Sea, where the men are men, the women are as deadly as they are winsome, and a man named Duck Ass can be a captain. I speak, of course, of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the forthcoming pirate MMO from Flying Lab Software, which I exhaustively explored back during GDC. The one I was looking forward to next month.

Well it looks like I'll be looking forward to it a bit longer than that. In his latest developer log, Flying Labs CEO Russell Williams explains why the June date has been scrapped.

Part of what has taken so long is that I'm 100% dedicated to maintaining control of the game. That's a very unique position in this industry, and honestly, I don't think a contract like this has ever been done, so there's a lot of education that has to occur ... We have a lot of long-range plans for the game after we launch and we intend to be working on it for quite a few years. So I'm not going to rush a contract in order to "get it done" - it has to be done right.

So now there is no concrete date, but things are definitely moving forward, with a massive beta expansion towards the end of June as they move into the home stretch. Not an open beta mind you, which they view as "entirely a marketing device", but wide-scale testing of the final release code.

In short, the game is quickly approaching done, but as is always the case with piracy, the law (or legalese) is getting in the way. Let us hope for a speedy resolution, as Captain Duck Ass (secretly a ninja) yearns to feel the sea air on his face as he bravely runs away once more. Yar! Michael Fahey

Contract status, and steady on course [Pirates of the Burning Sea]