Yes … and No. The PotBS Team are reporting that they aren’t quite shipping out next month as planned. They are however dramaticly increasing the total would be pirates in the Beta by the end of June.
So here it is plain: We won’t be shipping in June.
However, we will be expanding the beta dramatically at the end of June. This coincides with us finally having the original version of the game that we expected to ship for R1. It’s a massive improvement over what’s in the beta now, with a lot of moving pieces all finally coming together. We’ll introduce it to our current beta folks, and assuming that goes well, we’ll start the process of inviting people in. Lots of people. This isn’t an open beta — we view that as entirely a marketing device and we still have serious, large-scale testing to do of the economy, the Conquest system, and other features. But it is a huge expansion of our beta population. Currently, to get into the beta, you have to either be crazy lucky or have a beta key. Now your odds will get a lot more reasonable.
Apparently the corporate money types handling business negotiations are holding things up for the FlyingLab crew, so they’re taking the time to polish up the game and extend the beta. So expect a larger closed beta stress test, then possibly an open beta prior to retail launch when they get the business details hammered out with the real pirates of the world.
If you haven’t already signed up for the beta, now is your chance to do so before this ship sets sail and you’re left playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure all by yourself!
Source: Rusty’s Dev Blog
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