Pirates Of The Burning Sea Update Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: In terms of the game's development, did the development team get to put in some new features thanks to putting off the release of the game?

Russell Williams: No and yes. No, in that we’re not putting big new features in. With the latest beta build, we have our vision of what we wanted to launch with, and we get to spend the rest of our time polishing it. But yes, in that there are relatively small features that you’d think of as polish that will be going in. When we do one of our development sprints, we reserve a percentage of that time for new features requested by the beta testers. These are usually one to two day tasks, and we prioritize them and add them in as we have time.

FiringSquad: When can we expect the game's open beta to launch and what will the beta contain in comparison to the full game?

Russell Williams: Open beta will launch very close to the release of the game, and it will be the full game minus some last bug fixes and polishing. This month, however, we’re inviting 10,000 new beta testers into the game to give us a big jolt of fresh blood and really start pounding on large-scale game systems like the economy and port conquest.

FiringSquad: By the time the game launches, Windows Vista would have been launched for at least several months. Are there any plans to add DirectX10 features to the game at some point?

Russell Williams: Nope. DirectX 10 is fantastic, and we could do a lot with it, but it only reaches a relatively small number of users right now.

FiringSquad: When can we expect the game to launch? Will it be before the end of the year?

Russell Williams: Yes.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Pirates of the Burning Sea?

Russell Williams: Flying Lab is an independent studio and that’s always a hard road. We’ve been diligent throughout this entire process, and our fans have been a big part of our success. The game is looking and playing great, and we are on track for a very strong release. When you buy the Pirates of the Burning Sea box at your local game store and bring it home, you’re going to get exactly what we wanted to give you. We can’t wait to see what you think!