The update is massive.
Continue reading “Reminder: Secret World Legends’ Massive Update Is Today”
Tag: Secret World
Funcom Quarterly Report Notes 10 Active Projects
Funcom has released their third quarter financial performance and the results are up and down. Revenue is down from $7.5 million last year to $5.4 million this year which can be blamed on Conan Exiles having a strong launch in Q2 and Q3 of 2018. Funcom did not launch a title in Q3 2019, however they did admit that Conan Unconquered has underperformed to Funcom’s expectations.
Funcom’s MMO library has been relegated to a tiny corner of their report, simply mentioning “community events” for activities encompassing Age of Conan, Secret Worlds Legends, and Anarchy Online (The Secret World isn’t referenced at all). The financial report also notes that Tencent recent acquired a 29% stake in Funcom over the quarter, offering no cash infusion to Funcom itself as the stocks were purchased from KGJ Capital AS.
“We are very pleased to see Tencent come in as the largest shareholder of Funcom. Tencent has a reputation for being a responsible long-term investor, and for its renowned operational capabilities in online games. The insight, experience, and knowledge that Tencent will bring is of great value to us and we look forward to working closely with them as we continue to develop great games and build a successful future for Funcom.“ Rui Casais
After quarter activities so far have included the launch of 2015’s The Park on Nintendo Switch, as well as the release of Moons of Madness on Steam. The report does not discuss sales figures, however Steamspy estimates 20,000 to 50,000 total sales and Steam charts show the game peaking at 519.
Funcom’s upcoming titles include a Dune open world title that is currently in pre-production, a cooperative shooter set in the Mutant: World Zero IP, Conan Chop Chop set for launch in Q1 2020, Moons of Madness releasing on consoles in January, and two unnamed titles in development by Games Farm and The Outsiders, a studio created by former Battlefield developers.
Source: Funcom
The Story Continues: Funcom Announces Secret World Legends Expansion
The secret world of The Secret World just got bigger as Funcom today announced the first story expansion since the game went free to play last year. Continuing the main story, Dawn of the Morninglight leads players to investigate the faction of the same name.
The Morninglight began in The Secret World’s story as seemingly insignificant threats with the player finding bodies of their agents present seemingly wherever a disaster occurred. As the story went on, the Morninglight’s insidious nature began to show itself, and in Dawn of the Morninglight players will finally get the opportunity to infiltrate the secretive organization and see how it ticks.
“This is it, this is the next chapter every Secret World player have been waiting for,” says Josh Mills, Producer for Secret World Legends. “Ever since we left off in Tokyo before going free-to-play, players have been wanting to know what happens next. The whole team is really excited to finally be able to provide some answers to that and taking the story into a location such as South Africa has been an absolute blast. This is Secret World Legends unlike you’ve ever seen it before.”
(Source: Funcom)
Secret World Legends Returns to Tokyo
Secret World Legends is going to Tokyo, again! Players familiar with the original The Secret World storyline will be well acquainted with Tokyo and its quirks, but the zone has just become available on reboot title Secret World Legends.
Tokyo marks the first of three major content additions that will add new areas, content, and story. True to its name, the Tokyo update brings players to (you guessed it) Tokyo to continue the fight against the filth and the evil that it brings.
“The Tokyo updates represent the final part of the storyline that was The Secret World,” says Executive Producer Scott Junior. “Secret World Legends has opened up the game to an entirely new audience who will experience the Tokyo storyline for the very first time. But there is much more to come, and we especially want our veteran players to know that as the storyline of The Secret World ends, the storyline of Secret World Legends is about to start. This winter, a brand new story will be revealed. Players will get to go to new locations, meet new characters, and experience adventures they never have before.”
Secret World Legends is free to play on Steam.
Funcom Unveils Information Regarding The Secret World Transfers
Funcom is finally ready to hand over the details on Secret World Legends, namely the process by which you will transfer your character over. Starting Friday, June 23, you’ll be able to log into your account on the Secret World Legends website and transfer your account over. The transfer will only be available until an undetermined time in August and can only be performed once, so make it count!
For a limited time (until some time in August 2017), you can initiate a ONE-TIME copy of your current TSW clothing items and membership over to your Secret World Legends account. Activating this also unlocks all of your weapon pages in Secret World Legends! Once you log into your Secret World Legends account page, click the TSW Legacy Transfer button to begin the process. That’s it! You get to choose exactly when your items and membership gets copied, but again, this is only available until some time in August.
Most clothing items barring faction rank gear will transfer over, as will pets. Achievement rewards will cross over but the achievements will not.
(Source: Secret World Legends)
Funcom Q3 2016: Bad For Funcom, Good For The Secret World
It doesn’t take a financial expert to know that things aren’t so hot when the top story is the sale of 15 million shares for $954 thousand. Funcom has released their third quarter revenues and the results are not so great. Revenue in Q3 amounted to $1.7 million, down from the nearly $2.2 million over the same period last year and compounded by the presence of said share sale. The good news is that the company no longer appears to be fully underwater, with equity at $97 thousand compared to negative $365 thousand over the same period last year.
As announced well over a year ago now, Funcom has changed its development strategy to one that focuses on small, low budget experimental titles alongside less frequent, larger games. This new plan has brought us The Park, spooky jump-scare game Hide & Shriek, as well as the upcoming Conan Legends, slated for release into early access in January. According to the quarterly report, Funcom are constantly looking out for new and emerging platforms like virtual reality and eSports, and augmented reality to create new products.
The Secret World players will be happy to know that a massive update is coming in the first half of 2017, something that Funcom has described as a “major upgrade to both retention and acquisition mechanics and content of the game.” Age of Conan will be receiving a new dungeon while Anarchy Online hopes to revitalize itself by launching on Steam sometime in the fourth quarter. The Park is effectively a money machine at this point, as low as its sales are, due to the fact that development has finished.
As for Conan Exiles, expect more marketing on that game to crop up in November with the additional news that the game is being developed for Xbox One, while Funcom hopes that the game will still be in the top 10 survival games being played a year after launch. Another Conan game is in the works, albeit very early in the concept phase, and not set to go into development until Conan Exiles exits early access.
(Source: Funcom)
Funcom Earnings Slow Over Last Year
Funcom’s final quarterly report of 2015 has released, and the results are not so pretty. Revenues dropped to $2.5 million from $2.9 million over the same period last year, due to Funcom’s major sources of revenue (their MMOs) declining with age. In addition to a loss in equity and earnings, the total cash position of Funcom dropped from $1.1 million in the third quarter to 616 thousand in the fourth. The company’s cash flow for 2016 and beyond is set to be secured via sale of stocks as well as a convertible bond.
On the games front, Funcom’s primary revenue drivers continue to be Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World. The Park met all non-revenue related goals while selling in line with internal expectations. For those who have forgotten, in a previous financial report Funcom did not expect The Park to generate any significant source of revenue. For the first quarter, Funcom expects to launch The Park on Xbox One and Playstation 4, increasing revenues as well as expanding the company into the console market.
And while Funcom’s revenue did increase over the third quarter, this kind of result is to be expected. I’ve brought this up in previous articles but fourth quarter earnings being higher than third quarter are normal, due to the holidays and in this case a new game release. The fourth quarter is normally followed by a drop in sales in the first, which means that any growth is out of the ordinary and therefore better than expected.
As mentioned in previous releases, Funcom’s strategy going forward is to work on small budget, experimental projects working existing IPs into new technologies and platforms. The fruits of this labor will hopefully bear, at minimum, one small game per year and one larger title in development at all times. The Park is the first small game to be released under this plan with Conan: Exiles the first large title.
(Source: Funcom)
Funcom Q3 2012 Finances
The third quarter results are in for Funcom, and the news is a mix. The Secret World has launched and revenues for the third quarter are 10,963 TUSD, more than double for the same quarter in 2011 and far higher than in the second quarter of this year. Unfortunately due to the poor launch of The Secret World in July, new estimates show that the company may not achieve a positive cash flow in 2013. All of Funcom’s titles that have launched are in a position of bringing in a positive cash flow, while development continues for Funcom’s Lego Minifigures MMO, as well as Project A revealed previously and in conceptual stages. The Lego MMO is set for a 2014 launch.
Now for some juicy speculation. Funcom stated that 30-40% of The Secret World’s income is from the cash shop. Since The Secret World pulled in $1.1 million USD in October, and we’ll go the low route and say 70% is from subscriptions and they are all people paying the $15 a month. That leaves Funcom with approximately fifty one thousand subscribers for The Secret World in October. This number is either great or terrible, depending on your perspective. Hopefully it is more than enough to keep the MMO going.
Funcom has retained ABG Sundal Collier and GP Bullhound, leading some to believe that the development studio is on the verge of selling itself off to the highest bidder.
MMO Fallout 