The company reiterates that the reboot of The Secret World as Secret World Legends will make its recently announced June 26th debut, but the Steam launch will be delayed until July 31st as a result of “crowded market conditions with multiple MMO releases in May/June on Steam” — those being Black Desert’s Steam launch, Elder Scrolls Online’s Morrowind launch, and Final Fantasy XIV’s Stormblood. Seriously, nobody else should even try launching that month.
“The Company expects the majority of players after launch to be newcomers to the game, but is also working to make it worthwhile for as many veterans of The Secret World as possible to continue playing Secret World Legends. Due to the high uncertainty regarding a Free to Play business models the Company expects the development team to need to tweak the monetization mechanisms of the game in the months following launch. Paid User Acquisition will gradually be tested and introduced in tandem with the monitoring and tweaking of the game’s monetization KPIs.”
The report reiterates that Funcom Oslo is concepting another Conan game, while Funcom Durham is working on yet another project “in [an] early concepting stage.” Staffing is expected to rise to 120-130 by the end of the year.
Anarchy Online and Age of Conan, which were unceremoniously maintenance moded in last quarter’s report with no advance warning to press or players, are not mentioned, though under the strategy section, there’s this bit:
“Additionally, the company will keep developing and supporting the existing MMORPGs as they are an important source of revenue and drive the internal IPs.”
