Captained by Flying Lab Software (the guys that brought us Rails Across America way back in 2001), PotBS saw a lot of drama en-route to Gold status. The first delay led to rumors of vaporware and the next nearly cost them a publisher (talk about being dead in the water). It wasn't so much that the game looked bad as much as the development team realized that they might've bitten off more than they could chew. Originally planned a small-scale boat-based MMO (not too, too different from Sid Meyer's Pirates!), the project quickly escalated into a full-scale "OMG, we need a bigger development team" MMO. In other projects, this reimagining and fleshing-out tactic may have led to disaster (example, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes), but from what we've seen in Beta and at the Penny Arcade Expo in August, it's worked out for PotBS. Sony Online Entertainment seems to thing so too, and as the game became more complex, SOE picked the game up for distribution (maybe to head-off Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online).
As we saw in Rails Across America (assuming you've ever played it), FLS is all about the strategy and they didn't skimp on it when it came to putting PotBS together. The high level of detail in the game, in everything from the character development sections to the player-driven economy, speaks a more involved gaming experience that won't come off as "WoW in a boat". Keeping abreast of all these devilish details goes a long way towards explaining the delays in development and (sort of) makes us feel better about what we'll be getting our hands on this winter. In a recent interview with MMORPG.com, Developer and FLS founder Rick Saada said, "PotBS is the biggest and most complicated project I've ever worked on… It's great watching it all come together as we push towards ship."
Pirates vs. Ninjas