SOE to stop publishing Pirates of the Burning Sea

Free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game Pirates of the Burning Sea will soon be set out to new waters. Sony Online Entertainment and developer Flying Lab Software made the decision to drop the MMORPG "after much review and consideration." This will take effect January 31, 2013.

Though SOE will no longer publish Pirates of the Burning Sea, the game will live on. A startup called Portalus Games, made up of former Flying Lab developers, is planning to re-launch the game through its own platform in the "near future."

The game's Roberts and Antigua servers will continue to operate following the game's re-launch, though players will need to register a Portalus Games account by January 31 if they wish to have access to their existing characters. Players' SOE data and personal information will not be transferred in the process, Sony said.

For more on the Pirates of the Burning Sea transfer process, check out the Portalus Games website.