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Earlier this week, Pirates of the Burning Sea announced they were merging their 11 servers down to 4. Obviously, this rung some alarm bells in the community, so we tracked down Flying Lab Software CEO Russell Williams to find out the real deal in this exclusive interview.

"Companies are so afraid of any negative publicity that they basically wait until the game is on life support," said Williams. "People are always nervous about change, but the fact is the game has so many interrelated systems that the game really does function better when there is a higher density of people."

Read it all on the next page!

The fine folks from Flying Labs stopped by our chat room and answered questions from the community about Pirates of The Burning Sea.

<DelmarWynn> Arkenor: Question: Limiting conquest chat to a single career has the effect of marginalising Privateers and Freetraders in the organisation of RvR, especially with regards to organising invites for Port Battles. Are there any plans to make Conquest a general skill (with a level requirement)?
<[FLS]Taelorn> Navy have conquest chat because it's one of the benefits of their career, similar to how Privateers have Sanctioned Piracy.
<[FLS]Taelorn> We're not currently planning to move it to a general skill, but it's on the list of possibilities.
<[FLS]Taelorn> Also, the skill work in 1.4 is changing things to make it easier to access some of those abilities.

Click "Read More" to see the entire chat log.

Pirates of the Burning Sea introduces Patch 1.2 to the live servers tomorrow morning and our own Jordan Deam got Flying Lab Software Producer Joe Ludwig into a headlock to find out what's in store for seafarers. Here is what we learned:

The refined UI is one big way they've made it easier for new players in 1.2, but the developers have gone a step further in the refinement of the tutorial system. Realistic naval combat has a skill-set that is unique to Pirates, and Flying Lab found that these skills weren't necessarily impressed on players strongly enough when they were introduced to the game. To remedy this, 1.2 features unique tutorials for each nation that should help players get a feel for the game's core, unique mechanics.

Read it all after the jump.

JR "Razor" Sutich has a full review of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the new MMORPG from developer Flying Lab Software and publisher Sony Online Entertainment. This game lets players take it out to the high-seas or one of the many islands of the Caribbean.

Pirates of the Burning Sea had me at "ahoy". As a big fan of PC games such as Seven Cities of Gold, Curse of Monkey Island, Sid Meier's Pirates! and tabletop gaming's Wooden Ships, Iron Men, I had been looking forward to this title since I heard of its development. Besides, pirates are iconic legends in their own right and this is another chance to immerse yourself in that romantic fantasy of sailing the Seven Seas, minus the scurvy.

Read more after the plunge.

Avast! Pirates of the Burning Sea launches tomorrow and I've been playing for the last two weeks as part of the pre-order head start. The first MMO from Flying Lab Software seems to be a game that will soon be taking up all of my free time. To find out why, read on.

Graphically, PotBS looks wonderful. The amount of detail on the ships is simply amazing and has almost resulted in me getting my ship shot out from under me because I was oohing and ahhing instead of paying attention to the large French frigate with 34 guns trying to make large holes in my pretty boat. The avatars and land based environments are well done. However, there is one detail in some sea battles that I cannot fail to mention, and that is waterfalls. Some of them are quite beautiful and looks like they should be in the ads telling you that it's better in the Bahamas. It's little details like this that make the game special for me.

The client also has a lot of sliders and can be scaled back for those who don't have the latest and greatest video cards, which should open it up to a wider range of systems than many of its competitors.

For the full preview, click below.

During CES, SOE and Flying Lab Software hosted an event to give us one last chance to look at Pirates of the Burning Sea before launch. We find out how the pre-order launch treated them, get some early returns on the game's success, a peek at the first update, some never before seen areas and go over some of the game's core features in this preview.

Once the level cap drops on launch day, the designers believe the average reasonably casual player will take about two to three months to reach the level cap, but while this gives an idea of the game's curve, they do not believe it is as important a stat as in most MMOs.

"One of the things I like about our game is that level is not the be all and end all," said Game Designer Drew Clowery.

In actuality, the difference between levels is not that big of a deal. While it certainly cannot hurt to grind out those last few levels, it does not hamstring a character who chooses adventure over the cap.

Read more after the leap.

Gamezone has kicked up its preview of Pirates of the Burning Sea. There's nothing earthshatteringly new in it but it's all good two days before launch:

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a title that has been in development for a while, but it is immediately obvious that what Flying Labs has crafted is a game that not only parlays a current interest in things pirate, but also is a deep MMO gaming experience.

The game has an early release on Jan. 7 for those who pre-ordered while the retail version will launch later in the month.

Put on yer eyepatch and head over...or walk the plank.

Gamespy has kicked up their preview of Pirates of the Burning Sea. With lots of spiffy screenshots, here's a piece of their mind:

Watching this whole process unspool throughout the course of the beta (which runs through 12/23) has been fascinating. When first logging in, it becomes obvious that most players either choose to play as the British or the Pirates. Despite that, it's the much smaller population of French and Spanish players that are dominating the servers. The game has an intricate system of port taxes and resource scarcity that a well-organized group of players can take advantage of and, sure enough, it's these smaller better organized groups that are cornering markets on vital goods, putting together motivated producers and sellers and rigging financial markets in ways that would make Sherman McCoy jealous.

You may want to read the rest as the GS editors feel the crafting system has an awfully steep learning curve. If that's your thing, it's definitely worth the time.

Last week, SOE and Flying Lab Software hosted a run-through of the Beta with the press. Matt Lowery was on hand and offered up a complete report.

To go with it, we also have a treasure trove of screenshots and video from the Beta.

We then hopped in our ships and headed out on the open seas for what is at the heart of this game. Ship combat! We had level 15 ships as we headed out on the open seas, where we quickly came across a ship well over level 40. What was cool about ship combat in the game is that level does not equal victory. In PotBS, a cannon ball does X amount of damage, it doesn't matter if you are level 5 or 50. The same damage is done from a cannon. Sure there are plenty advantages to being higher level, skills that allow you to fire faster, or turn quicker, but a player that really knows what he is doing, has a real chance of beating a ship far above his level. This was refreshing to see, especially in a game where PvP areas can open up around you, it is nice knowing that when that high level player starts chasing you, it doesn't mean you are dead.

Read more after the click.

Jess Lebow is the Content Director of Pirates of the Burning Sea, but in this latest edition of our Q&A series, we talk to him about what inspires him and what made it into the game from history and reality. Lebow - who is also a novelist - gives us in-depth responses on all fronts.

WarCry: Sailing has been simplified for ease of gameplay. Is there anything there for the nautical purist to enjoy?

Jess Lebow: Oh sure.

Wind plays a huge factor in sailing and combat tactics. There are several different types of rigging in the game, and each changes the way a ship handles along with its angle of attack. Trying to sail close-hauled will reduce your effectiveness, as it would in a real ship. The sails will actually turn when you move through the point on the compass where the wind hits them in a different direction. And, among other things, our ships have been created using actual plans from sailing ships of our time period.

Read more after the click.