Funcom, whats going on ?

[Tiberivs]

I agree, a shutdown is the most likely outcome. If I had millions, Funcom would certainly be the last thing I'd invest in.

I wish Funcom luck though, and I hope they manage to turn things around. I guess we'll find out in the months to come.

Funcom going to "Sharks Tank tv show" xD
They would at least learn something with them,like for example...when u have a good product that sells to not abandon such product to develop new ones!

[Jota180]

For all it's faults and all it's short comings. I have been a subscriber since 2008 and I will be here as a subscriber until they shut the lights out.
I will walk away with memories of good times, good friends, great fights and drunken laughter.
Oh and staying up all night raiding or 6 mans...
Has Funcom been perfect HELL NO but I still feel the fun I get is worth the sub.

I hope I get a few more years out of Hyboria to play with all you F'tards

I'm with bertie.

[Ernests]

T4 was the last fully completed raid content in the game that after you finished you felt you are stronger than ever. You fight for all the pieces all the accessories month by month. After you finished it was a satisfying feeling and you could step to the next level.

Fully agree! The last valuable stuff all wanted was T4. T4 was completed in 2012. It is not a little too long time elapsed? And somebody still wonder why are people not playing )

[caveowl]

Man, this is a bummer..obviously everyone commenting here loves AoC and does not want to see it die... to their credit, Funcom does know success.. Anarchy Online has been around for 10yrs.. and AoC almost as much... it's just a shame we should all suffer because of Lego... i mean really why the Eff would Funcom have even thought that Lego was a good idea... who leads their development team ? Obama?

I have an idea Funcom.. kill Lego and offer your creditors some Funcom points

[Mellaus]

Actually, i don't think FC has ever been really successful. As far as i remember, they always struggled financially.

They launched AoC way too early, messed that up.
Then they launched RotGS, messed that up also. China like expansion was a super bad idea, appealing to nobody, the super grind was retarded and drove a huge part of the population away.
During all that time, PvP was killed, big mess.
Then they moved on and tried TSW, messed that up, since it was a niche game from the get go, impossible to market to the majority of gamers.
And then LEGO, which is failing hard for obvious reasons.

All in all, the last 10 years has been a succession of terrible ideas and decisions, with a couple awesome ones in between. Making AoC was an awesome move, but they couldn't deliver.
And making TSW was also awesome for Lovecraft fans, but you can't count on such a game to bring you big money, it just won't hapen.

What baffles me the most though is that FC tried to conquer the asian market with RotGS, the guy who had this idea must know nothing of that market. I mean, we're talking about people who love western culture, looks and lores, and instead you're trying to sell them their own culture, looks and lores. Automatic fail.

In the end, the best shot FC ever had to make big things was AoC, by far. Had they taken care of the game after the launch and made a more marketable expansion, it would have been huge.

[Tiberivs]

Actually, i don't think FC has ever been really successful. As far as i remember, they always struggled financially.

They launched AoC way too early, messed that up.
Then they launched RotGS, messed that up also. China like expansion was a super bad idea, appealing to nobody, the super grind was retarded and drove a huge part of the population away.
During all that time, PvP was killed, big mess.
Then they moved on and tried TSW, messed that up, since it was a niche game from the get go, impossible to market to the majority of gamers.
And then LEGO, which is failing hard for obvious reasons.

All in all, the last 10 years has been a succession of terrible ideas and decisions, with a couple awesome ones in between. Making AoC was an awesome move, but they couldn't deliver.
And making TSW was also awesome for Lovecraft fans, but you can't count on such a game to bring you big money, it just won't hapen.

What baffles me the most though is that FC tried to conquer the asian market with RotGS, the guy who had this idea must know nothing of that market. I mean, we're talking about people who love western culture, looks and lores, and instead you're trying to sell them their own culture, looks and lores. Automatic fail.

In the end, the best shot FC ever had to make big things was AoC, by far. Had they taken care of the game after the launch and made a more marketable expansion, it would have been huge.

You could just have said Funcom is like "The Hangover" movie "(...)succession of terrible ideas and decisions(...)" xD

[caveowl]

man i hope they get their s-h-i-t together T6 looks real nice on TL , and im hoping the gear upgrades are truly worth it , not like the T5 horribad weapons (more like T4.1)

doing the math when comparing 3.5 to T5 you can see 3.5 has better weapons in most cases... and i dont want to hear about the weak a-s-s buffs that the T5 gives you.. for example -hate for mage.. crit rating or natural mana regen buffs would have made alot of us happy

[lmagowz]

Comparing with amount of content in Turan, Vannaheim & Dragon's Spine, RotGS was huge success. Of course, they mess with grinding, but they fix it later. It was just early days of their new HM mechanic, and even now khitai instances very, very popular.

[Rathothis]

Actually, i don't think FC has ever been really successful. As far as i remember, they always struggled financially.

Since this point is somewhat unclear, let me clarify it. The below xls contains all of FC's reported revenues and operating expenses on a quarterly basis (since Q3/2004, prior figures are not available as FC only went public in 2005).

Bear in mind that revenue data doesn't exactly match the money transferred to them in the quarter in question. Revenues from subscriptions are distributed over the length of the sub. But with a b2p game like TSW. revenues from box sales are recognized over the estimated customer life. Since TSW's launch, this makes it really hard to tell how much the games in their portfolio (TSW, AoC) are making them at any given point in time, or how well the item shop is received by players.

Nevertheless, the data clearly indicates that FC made some money with AoC (though not as much as they had hoped). It also clearly indicates they lost a lot of money with TSW. Revenue data from after Lego's launch isn't available yet, but from all we hear it isn't exactly looking fabulous.

http://1drv.ms/1h6hA2p

[tapwater]

China like expansion was a super bad idea, appealing to nobody, the super grind was retarded and drove a huge part of the population away.

It appealed to me. I'm sure to others too.

As for the grind, that was never meant to stay long. Just long enough to patch any remaining quick progression exploits that they didn't catch during development. But due to financial difficulties, the team was cut and they couldn't do what they planned for a long while.