Funcom news is making the rounds this morning, as the company, which is wholly owned by Tencent at this point, announced that it’s picked up a majority stake in Swedish studio The Outsiders and aims to open a new studio in Romania this summer. “The expansions will lead to increased resources for both the rhythm FPS Metal: Hellsinger and the upcoming Dune game,” Funcom’s PR says.
Not mentioned at all in the PR is Conan Chop Chop, another game Funcom was supposed to be working on with Mighty Kingdom. Readers will recall that it was revealed as a rogue-like ARPG back in 2019, but the studios delayed the game from September 2019 into 2020 specifically to “expand multiplayer from just couch co-op to also include full online multiplayer,” then booted launch to February 2020, then delayed it to Q2 2020, then delayed it to later in 2020, then last December, it came out with a promise that the game would finally launch in “early 2021.”
“And this time we really mean it,” the studio joked.
Well, needless to say, they did not really mean it. We’re way past “early 2021” now. In fact, as of tomorrow, we’ll be into the back half of the year. There’s been nothing from the game’s social media, Funcom’s social media, or Mighty Kingdom’s social media on the game since last year’s delay. The same goes for Steam, which still clings to that “early 2021” planned release date. (Steam users are grumpy. Now I’m grumpy. Are we too grumpy to even want the game anymore when it does come up for air?) Nobody’s even acknowledged the missed window, let alone picked a new one. Funcom, what are you doing over there?