Pirates of the Burning Sea will be taking measures to increase server populations by condensing their current servers down to two. On March 5th, 2010, Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham servers will be closed. Starting on February 5th, 2010, character creation on the closing servers will be disabled and players will have the option to transfer their characters from the affected servers to one of the remaining two servers, Antigua or Roberts. Player accounts that were closed between January 22, 2008 and January 15th, 2010, will be reactivated for up to twenty -nine days of free play, allowing the transfer of characters.

Ahoy, Pirates of the Burning Sea Captains! Population density has been the topic of much debate in the community over the last few months. What we’re hearing is that Pirates is an awesome game that you really enjoy playing, but that it’s a lot more fun when there’s a critical mass of other players around to play alongside or against. Through feedback from the players and evaluation of server populations, it has become clear that key game features require higher density in order to function at optimum levels.

To push things in the right direction, we’ve decided to condense the current population onto two servers. On March 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, we will close the following servers: Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham. Beginning on February 5, 2010 at approximately 12:01 AM PST, you can transfer your characters from the affected servers onto one of the two remaining servers, Antigua or Roberts. At this time, character creation will be disabled on the Blackbeard, Defiant, and Rackham servers. We hope these changes will provide you with an even more enjoyable Pirates experience.

Click here to read the full announcement.