Tag: The Secret World

Funcom Temporarily Lays Off Staff


Funcom recently launched The Secret World, and if you hadn’t heard: It didn’t go so well. Launch numbers have been pretty unimpressive, and came on the heels of CEO Trond Arne resigning his role and Funcom’s shares taking a nosedive. Funcom’s second quarter finances won’t be released until the 28th of this month, but we can expect that the news won’t be good. According to recent reports, The Secret World failed to even break the “Conan-like” scenario that Funcom had predicted for launch, which some of you may remember as 280,000 subscribers.

Funcom has stated to Massively.com that they have recently laid off a number of staff, stressing that the layoffs are temporary (their emphasis), with the following statement:

“As we announced in the stock notice that went out on August 10th, Funcom is in the process of reducing operational costs and this process includes temporary layoffs as well as other initiatives. As we are currently in the middle of this process we can not provide any further comment at the present time. Rest assured however that we have long-term plans for the company and that we remain fully committed to all of our games. We aim to provide more information soon.”

As I always point out, layoffs after a game’s launch are nothing new and happen with virtually every game as development ends and temporary workers are relieved of duty. What is important is that we should keep watch of The Secret World’s content updates.

More on The Secret World as it appears.

Play The Secret World Free, August 3rd – 6th


If Trion bestows one thing on the world, it should be that your post-launch advertising should be aggressive and essentially ensure you mark every part of your potential customer’s behind with lipstick. Rift pulled this off very well with a wealth of content starting in the weeks after launch combined with regular discounts both in-store and online to where Rift sits now at $5 for a new copy at Gamestop. The Old Republic also attempted this maneuver with a number of weekend passes in an attempt to bring more people into the game who may not have tried it otherwise.

From August 3rd to August 6th, players are invited to try out The Secret World completely free of charge.

Early Access, Inactive Accounts, and Beta Accounts may all join in! If you do not currently have an account for The Secret World, you may register to participate starting today, Friday, July 27th, to have open access to this special celebration weekend!

Funcom has already announced monthly updates to keep The Secret World moving along at a pace that will hopefully ensure players have enough to do for a long time to come.

(Source: Funcom)

Funcom’s Shares Tank After The Secret World Launch


This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics.  On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.

“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”

In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.

(Source: Gamespot)

Funcom's Shares Tank After The Secret World Launch


This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics.  On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.

“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”

In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.

(Source: Gamespot)

Getting a Beta Perspective: The Secret World


The Secret World releases on in just a few weeks on July 3rd, and I had yet another opportunity to take a look at the beta this weekend. As you already know from our previous preview, The Secret World is an action-oriented game that plays somewhere between the button mashing of a World of Warcraft game and the more tactical location-oriented button pressing of Funcom’s other title, Age of Conan.

This time around I got my hands on the Dragon faction, a faction out of Tokyo who believe in order through chaos. The opening, however unfortunate, is the exact same as for the Templar: Long, drawn out, and boring. Luckily, it can also be skipped and some of the poor voice actors who appeared in previous beta weekends appear to have been replaced.

Foremost, we need to talk about quests. Quests are, and hold with me here, interesting and engaging. Unlike your other MMOs, you don’t pick up quests by wandering into a hub and nabbing everything in sight. In fact, you can’t. There are hard limits that allow you to only take a very small number of quests simultaneously. Every citizen of Kingsmouth and beyond is unique with their own personality. The presentation readily makes up for the much smaller number of quests available.

While there are a good amount of kill x quests, there are many more that require thought and deduction, offering little or no help on the mini-map. For instance, one of the first quests in Kingsmouth has you talking to survivors to learn more about the fog. It doesn’t tell you who to talk to or even where you should go to talk to them, that is left up to your investigatory skills. Other quests will send you on your way with a vague idea or general area, but no specific pinpoint on your map telling you where to go. Turning in quests is as easy as reporting in via your cell phone.

Perhaps what sets The Secret World apart from other MMOs in this regard is that the game has no levels. Since players are less inclined to try to rush toward end-game, since there really is none, they might feel better sitting back and enjoying the cutscenes and presentation of the quests. When I played The Old Republic, I found myself quickly bored with side-quests. The cinematics did little to numb the pain of quest grinding. In The Secret World, quests are long and spiraling and can regularly contain twenty separate parts.

Keep your thinking caps on, folks. For every brainless killing quest in The Secret World, there are plenty more that will strain your mind and put your investigatory skills to the test. Of course many players will simply have a browser open or beg in chat for answers (the latter being incredibly obnoxious), but there is a sense of accomplishment when you finally figure out the answer.

For example, another quest has you entering the house of a doctor to access the log files on his computer. Your only hint is a photograph that shows fireworks and a hint on the computer about the “song of the seasons.” The answer requires some knowledge of classical music, and I won’t spoil it here. I almost have to question if The Secret World will lose some appeal with its crowd because if you don’t have good deduction skills (or knowledge of classical music), you will probably just wind up looking the answers up online, and that will become annoying after a while.

Crafting in The Secret World is very similar to Minecraft, where you build gear by placing the building blocks in the correct pattern on a grid. Unfortunately, at least in my humble opinion, crafting is still very difficult without reading outside sources and guides for help. In fact there is a crafting guide on the Secret World main page that does an amazing job of explaining the ins and outs of weapon creation.

Combat, as I mentioned before, is a mixture of strategy without going as far as the intricate systems of other games. You will mostly be building energy to pull off attacks that use up said energy, and in the meantime many of the mobs have attacks that need to be dodged. There is a certain level of strategy required in combat, as you have limited space in your active and passive skill section to fill.

We’ll see how the next beta goes. Until then, I still haven’t burnt myself out of The Secret World. The more I play, the more engrossing that the game becomes. Player vs player combat was still absent from the beta but will appear next time.

Funcom Q1 2012 Finances


Funcom today released the financial details for the first quarter of 2012, and the results are mixed. Age of Conan continues to be Funcom’s major source of income, although revenue is down due to the release of a “large competitor.” Revenues dropped from 3,389 TUSD in Q1 2011 to 2,293 TUSD this quarter. The Secret World continues to be a major drain on Funcom’s finances.

On the good side, Funcom’s current flock of titles (Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Bloodline Champions) continue to remain at a positive cash flow, bringing in some much needed funds to keep The Secret World going. Funcom notes much more positive reactions to The Secret World than Age of Conan at the same time before its launch, and projects a higher retention rate than Age of Conan.

At the current rate, The Secret World is projected to sell 30% more than Age of Conan, with in-game store sales marking 35% of the game’s projected revenue, and a healthy retention rate of 490 thousand subscribers. A poor retention rate would be around 280 thousand.

Additionally, Funcom has come upon $22 million in standby equity which can be drawn upon as the company desires.

Getting A Beta Perspective: The Secret World Templars


Entering into The Secret World takes you to a world your crazy uncle Tom always thought was a reality. The Illuminati is not only a real organization, but they continue to strive toward a New World Order by working behind the scenes and out of sight. In the secret world of The Secret World, the Illuminati also has to deal with equal super powers: The Dragon, an operation that molds its power through chaos and unpredictable action, and the Templars, an ancient organization dedicated to the destruction of evil wherever it rear its ugly head.

If you were to only play, say, the first ten minutes of The Secret World, you might leave the game feeling rather disappointed. Character creation lacks choice, and your character’s introduction to his new found powers goes down the path of a very long and boring cutscene filled with drawn out exposition by what is hopefully a placeholder voice actress. Luckily, this is the low point of the game and the cutscenes and voice actings only get much better from this point.

The world of The Secret World is dark, without a doubt. The locations you travel through are beautifully detailed and permeate with an overwhelming emotion of dread, hopelessness, and the imminent darkness that waits around every corner. The world is coming to an end, and you are one of a select few who are even aware of it. The town of Kingsmouth offers plenty of nods to your favorite fiction stories, from Lovecraft to a possible nod toward Left 4 Dead with the vehicles (jump on a vehicle and the alarm goes off, calling in zombies).

The tutorial is a high time to leave your ego at the door. You are not the hero that The Secret World deserves, and the game makes no qualms about telling you right up, “you are not the only one, and you are not the chosen one.” The tutorial gives you a chance to try out and select a desired weapon from the list. Your choices are between melee (sword, brass knuckles, sledgehammer), guns (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle), and magic (elemental, blood, and chaos). Personally, I chose the sledgehammer. They don’t call me Sledgehammer Omali for nothing. In fact, they don’t call me that at all.

Combat in The Secret World is familiar and fast, somewhere around the lines of Age of Conan without the directional attack/block mechanics. You have attacks that build energy and attacks that deplete energy. With my sledgehammer, special attacks were mainly focused toward hitting multiple targets. Magic and guns were not radically different to melee, albeit at a longer attack range.

Leveling can be an overwhelming experience, especially when you first lay eyes on the skill wheel presented to you. The Secret World offers the ability to create the character you want to play, and if you don’t know what character you want to play, this can come off as almost too much freedom. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about accidentally gimping your character by spreading his abilities out too far, later on you have the ability to build decks of skill combinations and change them on the fly.

I hesitate to talk about performance with The Secret World, although the beta worked just fine with a few hiccups here and there that likely had more to do with running capture software at the same time I was playing. From the limited area that I saw in the Templar beta, The Secret World is coming along great. The map of Kingsmouth is huge, with quests and collectibles scattered around to encourage exploring every nook and cranny of this dark future.

With some luck, I will be able to provide more beta coverage of the other factions in the near future. For now, I had a lot of fun playing The Secret World and can’t wait until the game launches later this year.

Funcom Q3 2011 Finances


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.

Funcom Q2 2011 Finances


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 Is The First Part: Secret World 360 Delayed Forever


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.