• Category Archives The Secret World

  • Funcom Q3 2011 Finances

    Posted on November 12, 2011 by Omali Comment

    Because most of you probably don’t care to read up on it yourself, MMO Fallout is committed to bringing you the important information from each quarter’s financial reports. Yesterday, Funcom revealed its third quarter finances to investors, and there is plenty to boast about. Revenues increased 55% in the third quarter compared to the second, but Funcom expects the fervor to somewhat die out, and has predicted a loss in revenue in the upcoming fourth quarter due to a foreseen diminished interest in Age of Conan.

    The Secret World is “progressing well,” and the team is putting the final touches on squashing bugs, improving optimization, and balancing content. The game is still set for an April 2012 launch. Funcom’s final figures are rather low due to the development costs of The Secret World and a number of free to play games. In their “target scenario,” The Secret World will sell 30% more clients, and a healthy retention is around 490,000 subscribers. In their “Conan prediction,” Funcom expects only slightly better retention than Age of Conan (280,000) and one million sales in the first year.

    Some more interesting information:

    • The cost of hosting Age of Conan since launch has been 18 million, excluding bandwidth costs.
    • The Secret World will cost approximately 4-8 million over the same time span, reducing costs greatly.
    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Live, The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Funcom Q2 2011 Finances

    Posted on August 26, 2011 by Omali Comment

    It’s August, and that can only mean plenty of Q2 financial reports to read. Funcom has released its financial reports for the second quarter of 2011, with just enough time to factor in Age of Conan: Unchained. Here are some points of interest:

    • Age of Conan: Unchained has more than doubled revenue for the title, although we already knew that.
    • Bloodline Champions is being localized in Russia.
    • Funcom believes that the Secret World will be a less risky launch, given the stability of its engine (Dreamworld 2.0)
    • Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and Bloodline Champions are all bringing positive cash flow, but the development costs for The Secret World, Pets Vs Monsters, Fashion Week, and My Kingdom are putting serious hurt on Funcom’s money.
    • Funcom sees The Secret World as selling more in its first year than Age of Conan did, as well as significantly better retention.
    • A “healthy retention” for The Secret World is considered 490,000 subscribers. “Conan-like scenario” is listed as 280,000 subscribers.
    Unfortunately, unlike NCsoft, Funcom does not offer as detailed sales figures on a per-game basis or per-region. So Funcom is bleeding money, but such an outcome is expected with so many projects on the table.
    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Live, The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • This Is The First Part: Secret World 360 Delayed Forever

    Posted on May 19, 2011 by Omali Comment

    Before the discussion begins, let me just put something out in the open: I would love to see an MMO on the Xbox 360. Final Fantasy XI has somewhat of a monopoly, and Phantasy Star isn’t an MMO in the traditional open world sense, so that leaves Final Fantasy with the reigns. I don’t own a 360 (used to), but I know plenty of people who would love to see DC Universe, Everquest Next, Planetside Next, or even DUST 514 or The Old Republic moved over to Microsoft’s console. That being said, after the number of cancelled MMOs for the console in just the past two years, I have no faith that Microsoft will ever allow another MMO on the system (remember, Final Fantasy XI was allowed because Live was in its infancy, according to Square).

    I hold the same true to Undead Labs’ MMO, but my statement over The Secret World on the 360 is only affirmed by today’s announcement that the console version is on hold. Indefinitely. How do I know? Funcom commented this:

    “We are focusing on the PC version right now.  That is our primary market and we want that version to be as good as possible.”

    Sounds like the MMO edition of “it’s not me, it’s you.” Actually, now that I think about it, this sounds like something Cryptic said regarding Champions Online. I could use a flashback right about now…

    “It has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we’re able to share more information about it, we will.”
    -Daeke, Community Manager, Cryptic Studios, on Champions Online on consoles.

    That would be it. Now bring it home with what Cryptic said about Star Trek Online on the consoles.

    “It’s something we can readily do in terms of technology. We’ve had it up and running on certain consoles, and had plans and designs in order to take advantage of those platforms. But as it stands right now it’s a little difficult to make that final leap on the business side of things. So, currently, just like Champions, the console version of Star Trek Online is on the back burner.”

    That’s the important figure. It’s not the technological side, it’s the business side. Let’s not also forget Funcom’s intent on releasing Age of Conan on the Xbox360 and what came of that venture (read: nothing).

    I’ll say the same as I said with Undead Labs’ MMO. If it does release on the 360, it will play in a form that isn’t really an MMO, but rather closer to Call of Duty in that it features a persistent leveling system but takes place in stagnant, lobby based, locally hosted match making servers.

    More on The Secret World as it appears.

    This entry was posted in The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • April Fool’s 2011 Roundup

    Posted on April 1, 2011 by Omali Comment

    April Fool’s is one of my favorite days of the year, because I love seeing what jokes companies will come up with, my personal favorite being Google’s yearly jokes. Today isn’t even over, and I think the award for the best joke goes to ArenaNet with Guild Wars, who not only created a trailer and page for the Commando class, but added in an entire mini-game to Guild Wars as a “preview.”

    Here is an ongoing roundup of today’s jokes, good and bad.

    This entry was posted in City of Heroes, D&D Online, Eve Online, Global Agenda, Hot Titles, Live, Runes of Magic, Runescape, The Old Republic, The Secret World, Upcoming, Wizard101, World of Warcraft and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Funcom: Going Casual

    Posted on January 5, 2010 by Omali Comment

    Sweet Robot, er, tiger?

    With Funcom working on an expansion to Age of Conan, as well as the upcoming The Secret World, and the engine change to Anarchy Online, I admit I was both surprised and concerned when the announcement came that Funcom’s new division, Sweet Robot, would be working on a kid’s MMO: PetsVs Monsters. After playing Pets Vs Monsters: The Beta, the concern has relegated itself to my lower intestinal track.

    But who knew? The same company that brought us layoffs and greatly lowered revenue is also bringing us more casual titles! Granted, this is nothing new. Back in a time when Ritual Entertainment made great first person shooters, they were gobbled up by Mumbojumbo and are now creating casual titles. Funcom announced that they have even more casual kid MMOs planned for the future, with Pets Vs Monsters in open beta currently.

    (more…)

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Live, The Secret World and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Welcome Age of Conan..ers.

    Posted on November 30, 2009 by Omali 2 Comments

    The MMO Fallout Exploded today

    I’ve poked fun at Funcom from time to time, be it their questionable business decisions, cutting prices Freddy Krueger style in a desperate grab for more subscribers, and announcing a delay on a non-dated title. I may have opened up a portal, however.

    If you look at the chart above, that’s the traffic to MMO Fallout (Which excludes myself). Startled to see that spike, I dived into the statistics to find that the most searched phrase that led here was: “Age of Conan.” Whether our new visitors are existing players, or those looking for information on the title, MMO Fallout welcomes you and your hordes of buddies.

    So what’s the deal, restless group of oddly silent visitors? Am I making sense or do I have the wrong picture about Funcom and their titles? Drop a comment.

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Live, The Secret World and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • A Downward Spiral Does Not Mean Death.

    Posted on November 21, 2009 by Omali Comment

    I like to take some time every now and then to detail certain parts of MMO Fallout, usually terms and expressions I use, that generates the most feedback from fans. More recently, I’ve had a few questions about my consistently ending certain product articles (Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan, Planetside, and several others) with “More on ____’s downward spiral as it appears.” Some of the readers appear to be under the impression that I’m calling the deaths of these MMOs, lovingly pointing out that I have said from day one that I will never predict the death of an MMO.

    Well they are right, at least on the last point. When I say downward spiral, I always have facts to back myself up, and I am not always referring to subscriber numbers. Take Funcom for example, who not only cut off 20% of their staff, delayed a non-dated MMO, announced a massive revenue drop, and somehow is still finding the time to develop a free to play kid MMO. When I say Funcom is in a downward spiral, I mean financially that company is in a downward spiral, that changes direction depending on your hemisphere and leads right into the septic tank.

    I don’t call death because, to be honest, it’s redundant. Dwindling subscriber numbers? Yes. Financial ruin? Yes. Ponzi Scheme? Stargate Worlds. Calling death on an MMO is akin to calling yourself a soothsayer and predicting that someone would die, but they would have financial gain at some point before they do. Not when they’ll die or what the financial gain is, and all that can be chalked up as everyone dies and, generally, everyone has an income at some point in their lives. Blamo, you’re the most generalized soothsayer in all the land.

    (more…)

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Archlord, Asheron's Call, Live, The Secret World and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Funcom: Revenue, Outsourcing, and More Dissappointment…

    Posted on November 17, 2009 by Omali Comment
    If Funcom's money was gold-backed...

    If Funcom's money was gold backed.

    It has certainly not been a good few months for Funcom, and according to the company, the situation is expected to get worse. After September’s notice of layoffs of 20% of the company’s workforce, we received further news that the upcoming MMO, The Secret World, would also be delayed by at least several months. Age of Conan and Anarchy Online are allegedly unaffected by the downsizing.

    Age of Conan, alongside several other titles, is in the middle of a furious campaign to gain long term subscribers to their title (Because, as I say time and time again, it’s all about retention rate), bringing in heavy discounts for multi-month packages, veteran rewards, and more. Age of Conan has an expansion pack in the works, while Anarchy Online has its major graphics upgrade.

    More after the break…

    (more…)

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Live, The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Wait, Wasn’t Funcom Downsizing? Another MMO?

    Posted on November 5, 2009 by Omali 1 Comment

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    My encyclopedic, borderline obsessive compulsive brain allows me to notice trends and related material, even if I can’t exactly remember when it happened or what that related material is (if my brain was encyclopedic, no one bothers to put the books back in alphabetical order, and someone keeps drawing on the pages). So when I saw that Funcom has been given a grant for development on a new MMO, I had to check my own archives to make sure I wasn’t having a brain related event, or confusing companies.

    Lo and behold, I find it quickly: Not only quickly, but because it happened just in the past couple of months. In late September, Funcom announced that they were laying off 20% of their workforce. The company’s move to Montreal not only resulted in a downsizing, but I couldn’t help wondering at the time if firing one in five employees would cause disruption to the company’s two live titles (Age of Conan and Anarchy Online) and their title in production: The Secret World.

    (more…)

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Live, The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

  • Funcom Layoffs: Delays Imminent

    Posted on September 29, 2009 by Omali 2 Comments

    tsw_screen_1

    As September draws to a close, Funcom ends the month on a bad note: The developer of the MMO Age of Conan announced today that they are laying off 20% of their workforce. The developer is looking to reduce redundancies in its ongoing focus to move the company to Montreal, where they can enjoy more tax breaks and lower wages.

    Funcom’s upcoming title (pictured above), The Secret World, has been officially delayed by “several months.” The title does not yet have an announced release date, and a release date of late 2010 to early 2011 is expected. It is unknown if this will affect Age of Conan’s upcoming expansion, Rise of the Godslayer.

    Also unannounced is what effect, if any, will be had on Funcom’s current titles: Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.

    This entry was posted in Age of Conan, Live, The Secret World, Upcoming and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.


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