We have some work to do in integrating with their launcher and billing system, and we’ll be integrating some code to make it easier for them to localize the game. Otherwise, no changes.

People keep thinking of this in the traditional publishing paradigm. SOE’s changing that, and I believe that if you care about the future of MMOs, this is the most exciting to happen to our industry since Ultima Online.

The current plan is to hold back the RP story arc until initial release. That way the beta players have something new and interesting to look forward to after ship and I have time to work out all the kinks and give our fans what they deserve. I’ve been stretching our tools to the limit from the onset of this process and that means working hand in hand with every other department to make sure it works the way we want it to. Luckily, I’ve gotten continuous support from our devs and artists in my efforts to press the boundaries of what we can do with our mission system, and I’m going to take full advantage of that right up to ship.

"This is their game, they're going to be the ones at the end of the day who really benefit from this game doing very well," SOE's Christensen added. The majority of the financial investment and risk belongs to Flying Lab Software. That is not to say that SOE doesn't benefit from the game's success, but with the risk goes the potential for reward. Too often companies make their publisher rich just before being swallowed whole. The deal with SOE, Williams related, ensures Flying Lab Software can remain an independent company in good position if the game does well.

Further to this deal, both Williams and Christensen confirmed that Flying Lab Software retains complete creative control over their product. That means if for some reason FLS wants to release a Martian invasion expansion pack, SOE can advise them it might be a bad idea, but will not interfere.

We know there are haters out there. When we made our plan to announce the deal, we told SOE we wanted to do our own announcement directly to our community the night before the press release, so we could explain what we're doing and why we're doing. If anyone reads all of Rusty's devlog on the subject and still has nothing to say but "SOE SUXORS U LOSE" then like Mister T, I can only pity the fool.

So, the publishing partner is SOE.

Not the most popular of moves, obviously, so Rusty's new devlog confirming this seems to be largely damage control, but it's worth a read through.

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.

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1) We keep complete ownership of Pirates of the Burning Sea.
2) We have no interference from SOE on the development/ideas of the game.
3) Because we financed Pirates ourselves, we keep most of the revenues so we stay strong and independent.
4) The contract they gave us actually says what we agreed to verbally.

Well, now we know what they meant by "you wouldn't believe who we ended up working with because of control issues."

I only hope the contract is as good as they think.

Dani’s new role will have her helping new users, assisting in the moderation of our forums and just generally being the super-groovy person you’ve known her to be. Don’t know her yet?

That’s right. Against all odds, ConCo has in fact put over 1000 missions in the game – FOR EACH NATION. There is still some polishing to do, but the content is in the game and you can play from level 1 to level 50 (which many companies would call “content complete”).