The Secret World Message Board

Following the news of possible financial infringements a couple of days ago, we reached out to Funcom to find out if the situation would affect the company’s in-development Lego Minifigs title, as well as continued expansions and support for their ongoing MMOs, including The Secret World. Today, we received an update from the developer and I’ve included it in full below. Here’s a taste:

Production on all Funcom games continues as normal, and the company remains fully committed to games in development as well as the continued operation and updating of existing live games. Yesterday’s events is not expected to have any impact on the company’s continued operation or the development on future releases.

Good news then? It seems so.

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More problems for already troubled MMO developer Funcom today, as Norwegian economic crime unit Økokrim launches an investigation into suspected infringement of the provisions of the Securities Trading Act revolving the 2012 launch of The Secret World. Read more...

Økokrim, Norway's central authority for dealing with economic and environmental crime, charged MMO studio Funcom this morning with suspected trading infringements based around information provided for the year leading up to the launch of The Secret World, the company's headline game.

The news followed the Oslo stock market imposing a "matching halt" at 9.30AM Norway time, essentially stopping trading on company stock. According to a press release issued by Funcom via the Oslo exchange's NewsWeb, normal trading resumed three hours later.

We've reached out to Funcom and Økokrim for more details, but according to a press release from Funcom issued to the Oslo exchange, Økokrim believes there's a "probability" the company has not kept up the required records during the relevant time, noted as between August 2011 and The Secret World's launch in July 2012, and the two months following launch.

"The company is fully cooperating with Økokrim," reads the press release in closing.

There are various reports of Økokrim performing a "raid" on Funcom this morning, with photos of the unit's black vans outside the Dreamfall studio's Oslo headquarters, and Økokrim staff members entering the offices with cardboard boxes.

Funcom came under scrutiny in 2012, when former CEO Trond Arne Aas was investigated for suspected trading based on insider knowledge. Aas stepped down as Funcom CEO the day before The Secret World launched, and soon sold much of his stock in the company in the months after; Funcom's stock had dropped eight-fold from the game's launch to the time of investigation.

Økokrim, Norway's central authority for dealing with economic and environmental crime, charged MMO studio Funcom this morning with suspected trading infringements based around information provided for the year leading up to the launch of The Secret World, the company's headline game.

The news followed the Oslo stock market imposing a "matching halt" at 9.30AM Norway time, essentially stopping trading on company stock. According to a press release issued by Funcom via the Oslo exchange's NewsWeb, normal trading resumed three hours later.

We've reached out to Funcom and Økokrim for more details, but according to a press release from Funcom issued to the Oslo exchange, Økokrim believes there's a "probability" the company has not kept up the required records during the relevant time, noted as between August 2011 and The Secret World's launch in July 2012, and the two months following launch.

"The company is fully cooperating with Økokrim," reads the press release in closing.

There are various reports of Økokrim performing a "raid" on Funcom this morning, with photos of the unit's black vans outside the Dreamfall studio's Oslo headquarters, and Økokrim staff members entering the offices with cardboard boxes.

Funcom came under scrutiny in 2012, when former CEO Trond Arne Aas was investigated for suspected trading based on insider knowledge. Aas stepped down as Funcom CEO the day before The Secret World launched, and soon sold much of his stock in the company in the months after; Funcom's stock had dropped eight-fold from the game's launch to the time of investigation.

Funcom, developer of Age of Conan and The Secret World among others, has been reinstated on the Oslo Stock Exchange following a suspension earlier this morning. The suspension was related to charges from Økokrim, the Norwegian authority for the investigation and prosecution of financial crime. The charges state that the company is cooperating fully, which may tie in to reports in Norwegian media that the offices have been closed down and employees sent home while the investigation begins today. As for the specifics, we don’t know anymore than the few details in the charge sheet, which are covered below. We have contacted Funcom and will update as soon as we know more.

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From MMO to movie star. Funcom's supernatural MMORPG The Secret World makes its big-screen debut in IRL, a Swedish film about a troubled teen who finds happiness in a virtual world. Check out an interview with director Erik Leijonborg at the game's official site. Read more...

In the Issue #7 update for Funcom's paranormal MMO The Secret World, the player gets to wear a tuxedo and participate in a James Bond-esque snowmobile chase. There are rockets. This is why I love The Secret World. While other, more popular MMOs layer on the pop culture references, cramming them into settings where they just don't fit, The Secret World is current day, so they can reference James Bond all day long and it fits right into the setting. I got a chance to play through some of the fresh content in Issue #7, "A Dream To Kill", last week, and here's what I came away with: creepy, epic, Bond homage, snowmobiles. There's a strange plot involving kidnapped children, a mysterious femme fatale, a major piece of plot advancement, and a chance across snowy fields in fully-armed snowmobiles. Oh, and the update also adds a flamethrower auxiliary weapon. A flamethrower. The amazing free update to the subscription-free game, which also marches players ever-closer to the game's new Tokyo playfield, is now live. Find out all about it here. Vroom. Snow. Rockets.

There's something to be sad for giving players a fixed set of armor and equipment upgrades to strive for, that perfect set of stat-enhancing items that let other players know exactly how accomplished they are. That something is "boring." Any dedicated World of Warcraft player can look at another and suss out exactly what pieces of equipment they are wearing, what bonuses they are getting to their attributes, and generally how hard it would be to take them down, should the need arise. The intimidation factor is gone. Now mix-and-match separates? That's scary. Look at this woman. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this woman. I do not know what weapons or tactics she uses. I cannot see what talismans and trinkets she's wearing, so there's no way of knowing how powerful she is. She's just a professional woman standing in the middle of an ancient, monster-filled temple. She's scary as hell. Funcom has been giving player social outfits to tool around with since Anarchy Online, giving role-players a wide variety of outfits to mix-and-match. The Secret World does away with stat-based armor altogether, giving players in-game clothing stores, clothes as achievement rewards and special items in the free-to-play game's cash shop. Free from stat-enhancing shells, players are free to express themselves through clothing. Sure, some still opt to wear armor... ... but many more choose to look like this: Or this: Funcom has posted a guide to The Secret World fashion over at the supernatural MMO's website, explaining how players can look unique and original like the people in these screenshots. Hopefully they can also post a guide showing other online games how to take off their armor and relax.

Steam's week-long deals this time around are a mix of horror, action and dooughuts, with up to 75 percent off of Grotesque Tactics 2: Dungeons and Donuts, Binary Domain, Cities XL Platinum, Lucius, Monday Night Combat, Disciples 3: Renaissance Steam Special Edition, Jagged Alliance 2 Gold and The Secret World.

The Secret World, a modern MMORPG from Funcom, is on sale for $22.50, down from $30. Indie horror fest Lucius is discounted 66 percent (fitting, really) to $8.50 and Monday Night Combat is half off, $2.50. Check out all the sales (and doughnuts) right here.

#interview Just a few short years ago, Funcom's Joel Bylos was in charge of level 20 through 40 of Age of Conan, a massively multiplayer online game that was, at launch, widely criticized for a lack of quality content past level 20. Now he's the creative director in charge of Age of Conan, Anarchy Online and The Secret World, and his goal is to make unhappy players at any experience level a thing of the past. More »

The sixth big update to The Secret World looks moderately bonkers, with “The Last Train To Cario” offering Lost Ark type shenanigans with hats and whips aplenty. There’s also some news regarding PvP changes, where things have been tweaked to give more motivation to combat: XP shared between you and the group for kills, as well as a battle rank. Funcom suggest that this stuff, plus “a good chunk of minor enhancements and bug fixes” should make this update an important one.

The game is now subscription free, which makes it worth a punt for no-pennies.

Funcom is preparing to engage in a massive restructure that will see the company's focus shift from producing large-scale MMOs, such as The Secret World, to "smaller, more high quality online games." Funcom's offices in Raleigh, North Carolina, will absorb more responsibility - specifically, it will be responsible for maintaining and growing the communities of the developer's three shipped MMOs: The Secret World, Anarchy Online, and Age of Conan.

Part of the restructuring includes shuttering Funcom's Beijing studio - the chief entity responsible for art and animation in The Secret World - at an unspecified time in 2013. Funcom's Montreal studio will see layoffs in the plan; those who retain their positions and don't relocate to Raleigh will continue to work on unannounced projects for mobile devices and tablets, as well as maintaining the company's Dreamworld technology platform.

#thesecretworld The Secret World seemed like a promising evolution of the MMO formula when it came out this summer. But publisher Funcom has hit a series of stumbles that have left many wondering how they were going to move forward. One crucial step was revealed today with the announcement that subscriptions are no longer required. More »

The Secret World has dropped its subscription and purchasing the client will now provide access to all existing content, with no ongoing fees. Ahead of the announcement, I spoke to game director Joel Bylos and Funcom’s director of communications Erling Ellingsen to find out what this means for the future and why the decision has been made now. Can players still expect regular updates and how do the team hope to make the new model profitable? We also talk about the shadow cast by Guild Wars 2 and Blizzard, and the future of subscription-based MMOs.

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Funcom adds chainsaws, a raid encounter and more to its horror-themed MMO.

The Secret World‘s “Issue 4″ update will burst flailing onto the streets of virtual Manhattan later this month. It’s going to include a raid in which you fight your way across the streets of the Big Apple, as well as a range of other content, including chainsaws. How you get the chainsaw seems a little gruesome. Can’t secret society soldiers just go to a hardware store?

The update is also – bizarrely – going to introduce The Albion Theatre, which will allow groups of players to use props and sound effects to put on “plays” in the game for other Secret Worlders to watch. Bonkers.(more…)

Sometimes, it’s quite easy to forget about The Secret World. Don’t get me wrong: that’s not to call it a forgettable experience. Rather, its blend of witty wiles and bone-chilling atmosphere wasn’t enough to propel it to the same heights as comparatively household names like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Sadly, the main thing that’s occasionally shoved it back into the spotlight as of late has been internal turmoil at Funcom – not people finally taking notice of what is a fairly delightful (though certainly flawed) experience. And that’s a shame, because it sounds like Funcom’s chief fungineers haven’t stopped dreaming big just because of a few nightmarish turns for the worse.

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Well now, here’s a pleasant surprise. The Secret World’s second batch of story content took its sweet time – admittedly with good reason – but Issue Three‘s already sneaked up on unsuspecting players and pounced. Much like a cat. A cat who’s also god. (As opposed to a cat who’s also a dog – which is this thing.) Among other things, “The Cat God” kicks off TSW’s first ever seasonal event, which will unfold as Halloween approaches and star the felonious feline deity itself. That, however, is only one of the many baddie-filled goodies that awaits you. Nonchalantly rub up against the break while purring and pretending you don’t notice it to find out about the others.

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And by dance move, I of course mean “tectonic shift in creative management affixed to a phrase that happens to sound like it could be a dance move in a universe where things like layoffs and sadness don’t exist.” Given recent events, however, I imagine that actually adding a dance animation titled “The Internal Shakeup” to The Secret World would elicit a chorus of “too soons” powerful enough to wake the dead just so they could add, “Yeah guys, that’s sort of not-cool” before returning to their grim slumber. Anyway! Longest Journey mastermind Ragnar Tornquist is stepping down from his role as senior producer and slipping into some striking new creative director pants, while Joel Bylos is moving up from lead content designer to game director. Join me in reading way too far into it after the break.

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Do you own any tools? I own some tools. I have a screwdriver, a hammer, a wrench, and a key that doesn’t actually go to anything, so I use it to open cardboard boxes. Apparently, though, Funcom’s utility belt is even more expansive than my formidable arsenal. In fact, if the sadly struggling Secret World developer is to be believed, it even possesses the mythical Free-To-Play Tool. Yes, that’s right. It does exist. Even in Norway.

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#thesecretworld Funcom, developer of modern-day MMO The Secret World, is just not having a good year. More »

Yesterday, I told you to expect a giant pile of goodies underneath your Secret-World-mas tree today. And yet, unless you live in the future, you found nothing. I expect, then, that you are here waving pitchforks and torches aloft to run me out of town for my deceitful ways. But I didn’t do it on purpose. Honest! Instead, shortly after celebrating Issue Two’s imminent launch, Funcom realized it still had a lot of work left to do.

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The Secret World‘s second issue hasn’t exactly had the shortest journey to players’ virtual mailboxes, but – after one more brief delay – it should be arriving sometime today. Let’s be honest, though: seeing as it’s Guild Wars 2′s time now (Is that the point they were trying to make? I still don’t know), your TSW icon – cold and untouched by a mouse click’s caress – probably has the other kind of mouse living inside it at this point. You, I’m guessing, will require some convincing on this one. Funcom seems to think so too, so it’s put together a video overview of “Digging Deeper” – just for you, and you alone. And also hundreds of thousands of other people who are incredibly similar to you.

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#thesecretworld Hey look, it's a video for the changes coming in The Secret World's Issue #2: Digging Deeper update. Plastic surgery, bazookas and an extension of "the Kingsmouth Code" investigation mission — these are things I would have been thrilled about two days ago. Now that lead designer Martin Bruusgaard has been let go, not so much. More »

In other news, THIS GAME'S KINDA WEIRD YOU GUYS.

The looming face of Ragnar Tørnquist sits atop a message to The Secret World players, in an effort to calm concerns after what are described as “a turbulent couple of weeks”. The game, which apparently has only around 200,000 players after its first month, has put developers Funcom in a tough financial position, with rumours of as many as half the staff worldwide being laid off, and their share value falling a massive 84% drop. But T(ALT-0248)rnquist is seeking to assure players that things are still good for the game itself.

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#thesecretworld It's no secret that The Secret World has been facing some troubled times. Developer Funcom laid off half their staff earlier this month, which would seem to make the promised monthly content updates more challenging to release on time. More »

Well, I can’t say we didn’t see this coming, but I’d always really, really hoped some cosmic force would swoop in and reshape reality for the sole purpose of avoiding it. In this bold new world, Ragnar Tornquist would be the brains behind every MMO storyline, and we’d live happily ever after in worlds that couldn’t unironically apply the phrase “happily ever after.” But alas, The Secret World has had some pretty serious trouble gaining ground, and that’s taken a toll. First, layoffs and delays struck in fairly short order, and now Funcom’s headed for a very different future than the one it originally planned.

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#thesecretworld Well, at the very least, this fan-made The Secret World trailer is impressive in and of itself. But this isn't the first time we've seen a fan take content from a game and create a fantastically appropriate trailer, sometimes to greater success than the game's own developers. More »

When we last peeked in on The Secret World, it was on the up and up. Rocket launchers and surgery were right around the corner, and – and in spite of that sentence sounding like some kind of homicidal plastic surgeon super villain trap – it was quite an exciting time. But things have changed a bit since then – mainly, things of the layoff variety. And with some reports saying that up-to-half of Funcom’s employees have gone the way of Kingsmouth residents (that is to say they disappeared – not that they turned into wildly gyrating fish monsters), it’s not too surprising that the remaining staffers would need a bit of extra time to get things back in working order.

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