Had never heard of these ones! How close were they to the gameplay of PotC? Same detail to building a character? Officers to alter ship stats? Land exploration and questing?

Also, any idea of the publisher? I'm curious so I can gauge how likely it is to maybe show up here (also I'm assuming it was PC?).

I'd LOVE to try out a "new" versions of these games!

I'm not sure if it makes any difference to you, but I can tell you that the POTC license didn't change much about the game. The name was changed (obviously), it had a bit of narration voiced by Keira Knightley and there is a Black Pearl in the game....and that would be the extent of it. Really, it's essentially Sea Dogs II in everything but name.

I have only played "Pirates of Caribbean" from 2003 and Sea Dogs. The gameplay seems to be very close to that of PotC, but with better graphics, multiple playable characters and overall improvements.

All of the games where interestingly developed by Russian Akella. The first two games where published by Bethesda and the third by 1C Company, Playlogic. The forth installment was released by Playlogic. All PC except PotC which was both PC and original Xbox.

PS: There is actually a fan-based sequel to Sea Dogs called "Sea Dogs: Return Of The Legend" only released in Russia and the CIS.

Publishers:

PoTC - Bethesda/Ubisoft, developer Akella, rights might be held by Disney, though

AoP: Caribbean Tales - 1C Company/Playlogic, developer Akella, rights status unknown

AoP: CoAS - Playlogic, developer Akella, rights status unknown

If any of our detectives can find anything about who owns the rights, maybe GOG can bring them back.

There is also another title in the series:

Pirates Odissey: To Each His Own

This was released only in the Russian territories. Seems that an english version was/is in works, but no news about it so far.

All of the three main games I have mentioned are available in English.
You shouldn't dismiss Pirates of the Caribbean just because they rushed it in order to cash in on the movie. It is an improvement over Sea dogs and with the "New Horizons" mod it easily becomes one of, if not the best pirate game ever.

Maaan, I really hope they will somehow manage to bring PotC here. I was playing the hell out of it when it came out (funny thing is, I bought it only because I was a kid and naive enough to go for the movie-licensed games like this or Finding Nemo), with my jaw on the groud... The beatiful Caribbean, the sea, the naval battles! The satisfaction when I've managed to defeat and capture stronger ships during the boarding... Even "teleporting" during ship battles was fun, if somewhat of an exploit :D And the soundtrack (especially The Tavern Theme :3:3:3:3)... Actually, the soundtrack on its own would be worth paying a full price!

Too bad that the games like this had sailed away into the sunset, being replaced with a minigame-fest like SMP! or the beatiful-yet-shallow-and-simplistic Black Flag :( But that;s what GOG is for ^^ Thank you, guys!