Massively

The embargo has dropped and so now we can announce: Pirates of the Burning Sea will set sail worldwide on January 22, 2008. We've been drooling at the thought of a little MMO pirate action for a year or so now, so it's great to finally have a date to put "break the champagne bottle against the hull" on the calendar with.

Preorders, we're told, will start up on October 23rd, and anyone who preorders will be invited to a "pre-boarding party" that will get into the game 15 days early, and have the option to level up to 20 before the plebians are allowed on deck on the 22nd. Preorders also get a "captain's best friend" (a blue and yellow pet), a weapon "suited to their fighting style," and a 60 minute original soundtrack.

Are you guys ready to fly the Jolly Roger? I played Pirates about a year ago at PAX '06, and wasn't super impressed, but I only got to play it for a bit, and I'm sure it's come a long way since then. I am excited to play anything featuring pirates, of course (they're the second coolest thing in the world, right between monkeys and ninjas), but I may wait for the reviews on this one. At any rate, if you can't wait to get the eyepatch, tricorner and codpiece on and make some landlubbers walk the plank, you've only got about four more months to wait.