April Fool’s 2011 Roundup


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.

April Fool's 2011 Roundup


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.

Funcom: Revenue, Outsourcing, and More Dissappointment…


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…

Continue reading “Funcom: Revenue, Outsourcing, and More Dissappointment…”

Funcom: Age of Conan Unaffected


tsw_screen_1

Earlier this week I did an article on Funcom laying off 20% of their workforce. While the layoffs have officially delayed Funcom’s upcoming MMO, The Secret World, by at least 3 months, I questioned how this would affect Age of Conan, namely its upcoming expansion: Rise of the Godslayer.

I can happily say that, in this bad news, there is good news. Rise of the Godslayer has not been affected by the layoffs. There is still no news on the Xbox360 version of Age of Conan, or a release date for either the upcoming new MMO, or Rise of the Godslayer.

More on Funcom and their upcoming titles as it appears.

Funcom Layoffs: Delays Imminent


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.