Pirates of the Burning Sea Producer Michelle "Misha" Williams has posted a look at the game's v2.5 patch which is anticipated to hit the test bed later this week. In addition to bug fixes and 'tuning', there will be new additions to the in-game store (Treasure Aisle), new taxes and social features.

New laws have forced SOE to charge taxes on certain transactions, depending on where you live (particularly if you live in WA or TX). So they need the zip code of your billing address to be associated with your payment source. You may have already noticed changes in other SOE games or when interacting with your Station Account on the web.

The changes to the purchase process were somewhat extensive on the back end and took up a lot of DevCo’s time this milestone. We also had to make some slight UI changes to display tax information.

Read more here.

I mean, I would definitely play this game but I hear lots of bad things about it as soon as I look into actually getting it.  Just another victim of SOE management....

When will these guys learn?  It's getting ridiculous. 

So why not try it? Its free to play. The only investment you'd have in it is the time it takes to download.

Unless youre purpose was to troll SoE?

Huh?  What?

New laws have forced SOE to charge taxes on certain transactions, depending on where you live (particularly if you live in WA or TX). So they need the zip code of your billing address to be associated with your payment source. You may have already noticed changes in other SOE games or when interacting with your Station Account on the web.

What is this about?

MMORPG.com can you enlighten us please?

Because frankly this sounds like B.S. - or some very bad law making?

I would be really interested to know more about this.

Edit: And IF S.O.E. is correct - this could impact on many MMOs - so MMORPG.com reporters should be on to this.  Maybe even a separate article?

Gyrus this is more or less a sales tax. If you buy goods or services over the internet you should be taxed whatever your local state sales tax is.

So if you have any gripe take it up with your local goverment, i.e. your state governor. SOE/FLS is being forced to tax you, state laws and all that civic stuff.

Just be happy you dont live in the EU. Not only do they have a sales tax, they have a VAT too. So in effect they get boned twice.

Well, if it's a sales tax then a 'smart' international business should be able to avoid it (depending on how it's structured - which is why I would like to know more)

FWIW I live in Australia and we have a GST.

I have a subscription to an MMO and I do not pay GST on it.

And no - if you buy goods over the internet you should NOT be taxed at your local tax rate.

In fact, in some cases this could violate international trade agreements.

Edit: Not to mention - how is some MMO Dev in Seattle supposed to know what my local tax rate even is?

And MMORPG.com...

Why haven't other MMOs done the same (whatever 'the same' is?)?

Are Blizzard billing people from WA (Washington) or TX (Texas) differently?  Are Turbine?  Are any others besides FLS/SOE?

What are the "certain transactions"?

This story just seems incomplete to me?

You get charged sales tax by the internet company if they have a presence in that state.  For example, SOE has offices in Austin, TX so if you purchase a product from them and you live in Texas, you are charged sales tax.  If you live in Oklahoma and purchase a product from SOE you would not be charged a sales tax as SOE has no presence in the state of Oklahoma... it has been this way for quite some time.

This game is still around? It's entertaining for about a week and then you realize that the only thing there is to do is PVP...PVE? Forget it, it's the same stuff over and over = boring. The game economy sucks, crafting sucks, most of the players that have been around for a while just whine and bark orders about where everyone must be when there's some RVR happening or else else why bother playing, lol...garbage. Captain Epeens in abundance. 2 good things I can say about the game: The ship to ship battles are amazing and if you're into RP, then this game is a haven for it. Otherwise, free or not, don't waste your time.

Originally posted by warmaster670

Originally posted by Gyrus

Edit: Not to mention - how is some MMO Dev in Seattle supposed to know what my local tax rate even is?

You know what the internet is right? i mean, your on it, its more than mmo forums and porn.

As a business owner / retailer it is NOT up to me to sift through the internet and the laws of every state and country my customers might do business from.  The cost of that exercise would make it impossible for many businesses to do business.

If you think this is incorrect - lets do a little 'thought experiment'?

Let pretend I wish to purchase a product from you over the internet.

By your logic... YOU are now responsible for complying with the laws where I live?

Okay... list them and quote the taxes.  Also explain how you will file your tax return(s).

Now back to the people who provided sensible answers:

You get charged sales tax by the internet company if they have a presence in that state.  For example, SOE has offices in Austin, TX so if you purchase a product from them and you live in Texas, you are charged sales tax.  If you live in Oklahoma and purchase a product from SOE you would not be charged a sales tax as SOE has no presence in the state of Oklahoma... it has been this way for quite some time.

So, Blizzard and Turbine already do this?

TBH this seems to be easily avoided... so does it include subsidiaries?

And that also doesn't tally with what FLS and SOE are saying

New laws have forced SOE to charge taxes on certain transactions

New?  So if it has been this way for some time - are we talking about the same thing?

I am asking because I followed PotBS since well before release - and let's just say that there were several times the business sense of FLS was 'questionable'.  They got things wrong and said things that didn't quite add up.

Originally posted by odinfish

This game is still around? It's entertaining for about a week and then you realize that the only thing there is to do is PVP...PVE? Forget it, it's the same stuff over and over = boring.

I actually enjoyed the PVE and the PVP, but once the PvP went to crap shortly after release (bundleHerc or bust) I pretty much stuck to the PvE..... until they changed boarding combat into some kind of strange shootout at OK corral.