funcom posts

MMO game developer Funcom continues to have financial problems as shown in their latest economic press release today. The company announced that it had a loss of $9.6 million for the quarter that ended on September 30 compared to a profit of $3.3 million last year. Revenues were down to just $5.7 million for the quarter which is a nearly 69 percent decrease from the same period a year ago.

Nearly two months ago, Funcom cut their work force by 20 percent and announced a delay in the release of their next major MMO project The Secret World. Today they announced that their first free-to-play casual MMO, Pets Vs Monsters, would go into beta testing in December with an official launch in 2010. They also stated that their first major commercial expansion for Age of Conan would launch in the first half of 2010.

Funcom seems to be trying very hard to get old players of its MMO Age of Conan back on their subscriptions. Today the developer announced that old players in good standing can return to play the game for free for two weeks. They are even throwing in double experience points for your character during the free time period

And that's not all. If you actually decide to come back to the game full time you have some special subscription offers. If you do the regular month-to-month plan you get an extra seven days of game time for free. If you sign up for three months you get the seven free days plus a guarantee to be in the beta test for Funcom's next MMO project The Secret World. Signing up for six months gets those items plus a uber cool in-game helmet. Going all out with a year's subscription gets you all of the previous offers plus free access to the game's upcoming expansion Rise of the Godslayer.

Funcom is known for their fantasy and sci-fi based games like The Longest Journey, Age of Conan, and their upcoming MMO The Secret World. However it looks like the company is branching out with, of all things, a snowboarding game.

The Develop web site reports that the game, titled On The Edge Of The World, will apparently be free-to-play for both the PC and Mac and feature things like online tournaments and social networking features. The developer received a $260,000 grand from the Norsk Film Institutt to make the game which is being designed to promote Norwegian winter sports. No release date for the game has been announced.

Funcom's fantasy MMO Age of Conan has given its customers a new free content update to check out this week. The updated, titled Night of Lost Souls, has some Halloween-themed content with three new quests that will give players a chance to "challenge the dark and mysterious ghosts of Hyboria's fallen warriors." Special rewards will include gaining a pet demon and a new weapon, the Unholy Backscratcher (and no, we aren't kidding).

A new high level dungeon has also been added in the update and Funcom is also activating the game's new Veteran's Points system where players who have been subscribing to the game for at least a month will get some special stuff by accumulating points and using them via the game's vendors. Finally there are some new subscriber discounts if you pay for more than one month at a time. People who pay for three months get a 20 percent price reduction while six month customers get a 30 percent subscriber discount. If you want to pay for a full year the price goes down 45 percent.

Funcom still would like a few new players to try out Age of Conan so the developer is once again launching a free trial for their fantasy MMO. The free trial version lasts for seven days and has a number of other restrictions compared to the full version but if you have never tried the title now is the perfect time to do so.

Age of Conan launched about 18 months ago and has had issues retaining its player base ever since. Funcom has since cut down the number of servers and most recently cut 20 percent of its own workforce. However, the game's development team is still working to upgrade and update Age of Conan including working on its first commercial expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. The expansion currently does not have a release date.

In what has to be considered very bad news, MMO game developer Funcom has announced that 20 percent of its workforce will be cut, either by permanent headcount reductions or forced leave "to better align the Company's operations to the current marketplace." Funcom employed about 300 people before these new cuts were announced

Specific numbers of how many workers lost their jobs and how many are simply on force leave were not mentioned in the brief press release. It also stated that while development of their expansion pack for Age of Conan will continue as planned (along with their first free-to-play MMO, still unnamed), the development of their upcoming MMO The Secret World "will be some months extended".

Long before Funcom became a MMO-exclusive game developer they created acclaimed PC adventure titles such as The Longest Journey. The game, released in 2000, has now become the latest game to be added to GoG.com's DRM-free library of titles to purchase and download.

The Longest Journey mixes sci-fi and fantasy in its tale of April Ryan, who shifts in between two parallel universes and tries to save both from disaster. The game is now available to download from GoG.com for $9.99. It includes some bonuses such as the game's original soundtrack along with some wallpapers and artworks. Perhaps GoG.com will follow this release at some point with the game's quasi-sequel Dreamfall at some point.

For the past couple of years Anarchy Online and Age of Conan developer Funcom have been giving hints about their next major MMO game called The Secret World. It's a game that's set in the modern day Earth but an Earth where all the conspiracies you have read about are real.

Now Funcom feels the game has entered a stage of its development that they can reveal a little more about their plans. Last week at Penny Arcade Expo we got a chance to check out a behind-closed-doors presentation from Funcom's creative director Ragnar Tornquist and lead designer Martin Brusgaar. Much like the premise of the game, we were told not to reveal anything about what we were told or saw about The Secret World last week . . . until today, that is when Funcom's embargo lifted.

Look for more info after the jump:

Funcom's latest entry in the MMO genre, The Secret World, has recently released a selection of concept art for the public to take a peek at along with all the other new information. Included in the concept art are general portraits of what players of different factions look like, the different faction headquarters, and some locations around the world. The general focus, unsurprisingly seems to be on an Asian look for the Dragon, a religious look for the Templar, and a high-tech secretive look for the Illuminati. There is also a CGI trailer, for those interested in a little more dynamic view of the game. Take a look through our gallery for all the great concept pieces!

Funcom has been... well, secretive about its upcoming MMO The Secret World since it was announced in April and blew us away with the first cinematic trailer, but information like yesterday's factions announcement is starting to trickle in. This new trailer being shown at PAX 2009 continues to impress us and there's at least one more to come, so stay tuned for more coverage of the game.

"The Secret World takes place in our own, modern-day world. Players can explore locations such as New York, London, and Seoul, as they unravel the mysteries, legends and myths that make up our world and its history. But the real and realistic will clash with the unreal and fantastical, as the darkness of the secret world approaches. Players will have the freedom to become whatever they want to be and play however they want to play, allowing them to explore the world at will and master anything from voodoo and black magic to martial arts and modern firearms."

Download HD The Secret World Cinematic Trailer #2 (79 MB)
Check out all The Secret World downloads