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Age of Conan: Funcom Financial Report Summary
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
On May 15th, Funcom released their Q1 2009 Financial Report, in it, they discuss the company's overall financial situation as well as how their current MMOs factor into the situation.
Yesterday, Norwegian Game Developer Funcom released their Financial Report for Q1 2009. Funcom is the company responsible for Anarchy Online, Age of Conan and the recently announced MMO, The Secret World.
There was speculation amongst some MMO followers that this document would read more like an obituary for the company than a financial statement. This, as it turns out, does not seem to be the case. While it is difficult to argue against the fact that companies will always put the most positive spin on any public document, it is clear that on some level, things are looking up for Funcom.
;)
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Good news, I am glad things seem to be going in the right direction.
Secret World looks/sounds great
And for Conan, I was a guild leader, and to me the PvP focus/system, as well as siege updates are making me interested in re-subbing.
I play all ghame
Well ... hats off to them I suppose.
Too bad they have to go out on a limb to bombard us with advertising with cheap pay-offs which don't really rock my boxers, but for sites like mmorpg.com I suppose Funcom is a very welcome customer.
My brand new bloggity blog.
age of conan is a vastly improved game now . outside of warcraft it proberbly offers the best mass appeal right now . if you tried it a year and hated it with a vengance like me its well worth downloading the free trial if your bored with your current mmo . if your looking for an mmo with a slightly more adult/darker edge to it this is also the game for you . good luck to funcom and good on them for turning this loser into a winner .
There are just two more major things I would like to see make it into the game.
A few different starting areas and tower sieges that would knock the socks off of WAR's keeps.
Then I'd be overwhelmingly happy
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
The only reason why this report "sounds" positive is because Funcom wrote off 23 millions in 4th Quarter. Thats means that they get tax reduction (company valued at 75 million now instead of 100 million before) and thus they look like they have actually made 2 million profit this quarter. Hope this clears that part of the "positve" twist up.
As a game I do not care about AOC. I played through the starting area over 15 times in beta - then when it launched and I will always think of AOC as the most linear MMO created. You would not be able to bribe me into playing through Tortage once more... Even with the 5 mins memory leaks crashes gone.
Funcom does not change. They robbed ppl of their moneys to finish up the game and are now aiming for new custimors to take the bate in next ad campaign. Most ppl tho know that Funcom went far over the line in what is aceptable in terms of what they said was in the game and what was acutally in the box. No company should ever be forgiven for cheating ppl into buying their product.
What I don't get is how people can blame Funcom for what I highlighted in red.
It's your own damn fault. show me the pics of Gaute holding a gun to your head forcing you to hand over money. You should have done your research. You should have waited until the game launched and waited until the reviews started coming out. You bought into the hype, so you need to take some of the responsibility too.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
You know in this time of reccession alot of companies that where in such a bad state of affairs according to us players would have already been forced to close it's doors, they haven't, yet you want to highlight something that has been used to help companies in time of need to cope with cash flow issues as a negative, I wonder would you take this stance if the company (if you work) you worked for was also getting some sort of help via Tax laws?
I played AoC, I enjoyed the game but left due to a lack of content at the lvl 60 range, I'm currently playing WAR and enjoying the game, however I do not wish any games company ill will over their product, even DFO deserves some respect (Not the imbecile Tasos) for trying to take on the big boys in a crowded MMO market.
It's been said before and I'l say it again, we are gamers who play games, why worry about what the suits are doing, if your that way inclined it's best to get out of the MMO genre now otherwise your just going to suffer years more heartache worrying about how well a games developer is doing or not doing.
To the hater shills like Frobner all I have to say is: Ohm nom nom nom.
AoC is kicking ass and growing, your smear campiagn hurt but did not kill AoC like you hoped it would. a few of us got a inside look at what's coming down the pike recently ..and it's going to bring in even more solid subscribers.
What I don't get is how people can blame Funcom for what I highlighted in red.
It's your own damn fault. show me the pics of Gaute holding a gun to your head forcing you to hand over money. You should have done your research. You should have waited until the game launched and waited until the reviews started coming out. You bought into the hype, so you need to take some of the responsibility too.
I suggest you read the text in green before you actually blame me. I was in fact one of the person who tried repeatedly to point out the real state of the game before it was launched. Sites like MMORPG.COM deleted those posts even if they had full proof that DX10 was not working but then allowed posts claiming DX10 was in the game to stand.
I played the game for months before retail and I know exactly what went on. I knew exactly what the game was about and I felt it as my duty to warn ppl on how much of a fraud was really going on. Everyone knows now how gigantic problem AOC had on launch. Not just technical problems but also basic rulset problems - something this is now beeing fix, one year after game realeased.
Here is the fact for you. AOC was not ready when it launched. It was far from it. What did Funcom do ? Did they delay the game ? No ... because they saw a good chance of selling 1 million copies before WOTLK and WAR launched. Did they tell ppl that the game wasn't ready ? No they did not do so. In fact they prevented EVERYONE in the general beta to acutally say anything about the true state of the game by keeping the game under NDA.
Funcom conned ppl into buying a product that was not in any acceptable state. Thats just a fact. Ofc gaming sites like MMORPG.COM did their part in hyping up the game by allowing the "positive" posts to stand and banning all the "negative" posts based on NDA.
What can we - the players do when a company behaves like this towards fellow gamers ? We can keep pointing it out and tell the truth in the matter. And hopefully we can prevent more disasters like Vanguard and AOC happening again in the near future. Cause its simply not acceptable that any product is sold in the state that AOC was when it was released.
What I don't get is how people can blame Funcom for what I highlighted in red.
It's your own damn fault. show me the pics of Gaute holding a gun to your head forcing you to hand over money. You should have done your research. You should have waited until the game launched and waited until the reviews started coming out. You bought into the hype, so you need to take some of the responsibility too.
I suggest you read the text in green before you actually blame me. I was in fact one of the person who tried repeatedly to point out the real state of the game before it was launched. Sites like MMORPG.COM deleted those posts even if they had full proof that DX10 was not working but then allowed posts claiming DX10 was in the game to stand.
I played the game for months before retail and I know exactly what went on. I knew exactly what the game was about and I felt it as my duty to warn ppl on how much of a fraud was really going on. Everyone knows now how gigantic problem AOC had on launch. Not just technical problems but also basic rulset problems - something this is now beeing fix, one year after game realeased.
Here is the fact for you. AOC was not ready when it launched. It was far from it. What did Funcom do ? Did they delay the game ? No ... because they saw a good chance of selling 1 million copies before WOTLK and WAR launched. Did they tell ppl that the game wasn't ready ? No they did not do so. In fact they prevented EVERYONE in the general beta to acutally say anything about the true state of the game by keeping the game under NDA.
Funcom conned ppl into buying a product that was not in any acceptable state. Thats just a fact. Ofc gaming sites like MMORPG.COM did their part in hyping up the game by allowing the "positive" posts to stand and banning all the "negative" posts based on NDA.
What can we - the players do when a company behaves like this towards fellow gamers ? We can keep pointing it out and tell the truth in the matter. And hopefully we can prevent more disasters like Vanguard and AOC happening again in the near future. Cause its simply not acceptable that any product is sold in the state that AOC was when it was released.
I read the green...and can say without a doubt....you are biased
In green you say you "I played through the starting area over 15 times in beta"...what's your point? The starting area ISN'T the game.
The rest of what you say could be said about every MMO out there....so move on.
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
You know in this time of reccession alot of companies that where in such a bad state of affairs according to us players would have already been forced to close it's doors, they haven't, yet you want to highlight something that has been used to help companies in time of need to cope with cash flow issues as a negative, I wonder would you take this stance if the company (if you work) you worked for was also getting some sort of help via Tax laws?
I played AoC, I enjoyed the game but left due to a lack of content at the lvl 60 range, I'm currently playing WAR and enjoying the game, however I do not wish any games company ill will over their product, even DFO deserves some respect (Not the imbecile Tasos) for trying to take on the big boys in a crowded MMO market.
It's been said before and I'l say it again, we are gamers who play games, why worry about what the suits are doing, if your that way inclined it's best to get out of the MMO genre now otherwise your just going to suffer years more heartache worrying about how well a games developer is doing or not doing.
Funcom is in bad state of affairs... it lost 1/4th of the value of the entire company last year. They survied now because they did not have to pay taxes cause they lost so much last year. I really pitty ppl that still belvie one word that Funcom says - including financial statements.
Here is a fact. The future of AOC is very bleak at this point in time. The next few months will probably determine if the content that the "170" ppl are working on in "AOC" will be launched as an expansion or just used in the other MMO game the company is making. Thats how bleak it is...
And before ppl start to talk down DFO to much - or their game director. I just want to remind ppl that the darkfall way of doing things is EXACTLY the way that most MMO games should be going now in terms of releasing. Few servers.. few clients sold (even tho alot of more could be sold) and alot of things are beeing fixed fast cause the problems are not widespread on 50+ servers. I take my hat off for DFO for beeing honest about their product instead of trying to lie to ppl into preordering something that the company knew they could not deliver on day one.
You do realise there is a very long list of developers that have pushed out products that weren't ready, a few months down the line a big patch will come out to fix those issues, it happens in stand alone games and it happens in MMO's, you would have thought the lessons would have been learned by now wouldn't you.
The same mistakes are made time and again and no matter how many 1 man crusades there are to bring a company to account it just won't sink in, mistakes will continue to be made just as they are in real life, in fact the term "Lessons where learned" is such an overly used phrase that it has become embarrassing to hear it used now.
Again you really need to let this go otherwise your going to become bitter and twisted over some pixels that at the end of the day do not matter in the slightest to any of us, they are there to provide entertainment, or supposed to, but for some obscene reason some ppl need to take developers to task over their products as if it was a matter of life or death, it's quite pitiful really to see the lengths some gamers will go to to put gamers off future products just because they have an axe to grind.
Every developer out there has it's haters, I think I've seen every name of every developer used on this and other MMO forums as a target for hate at least once, if we all believed everything that was written we would be scared to walk into our games shops to part with our hard earned money.
It's also very obvious that your going to continue to post in a manner that will garner nothing but contempt for your stance, ppl really don't want to keep reading "The end is Nigh" and everything is "Doom Doom Doom", ppl who post are always going to be considered a sandwich short of a picnic and never be taken seriously, mainly because your taking this all far too personally and so out of proportion.
Ah I now realise who you are, I should never have mentioned DFO, or responded to this thread as it's going to end up a pointless and endless baiting contest now, think I'l pass on this one as I've already lost most of my hair to forum idiots.
You call that a bloody financial summary? Its a load of garbage, there are no numbers there at all the only thing they've bothered to mention there is the amount of employees they have and the size of their ridiculously big client, nothing more than bloody corporate propaganda going "Oh its fine! We're actually doing very well".
2D Boy had the balls to post their expenses for World of Goo even for simple things like testing, so why the hell can't these assholes who have repeatedly messed things up and scammed their customers do the same? They're being more secretive than the federal reserve for crying out loud.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
What I don't get is how people can blame Funcom for what I highlighted in red.
It's your own damn fault. show me the pics of Gaute holding a gun to your head forcing you to hand over money. You should have done your research. You should have waited until the game launched and waited until the reviews started coming out. You bought into the hype, so you need to take some of the responsibility too.
I suggest you read the text in green before you actually blame me. I was in fact one of the person who tried repeatedly to point out the real state of the game before it was launched. Sites like MMORPG.COM deleted those posts even if they had full proof that DX10 was not working but then allowed posts claiming DX10 was in the game to stand.
I played the game for months before retail and I know exactly what went on. I knew exactly what the game was about and I felt it as my duty to warn ppl on how much of a fraud was really going on. Everyone knows now how gigantic problem AOC had on launch. Not just technical problems but also basic rulset problems - something this is now beeing fix, one year after game realeased.
Here is the fact for you. AOC was not ready when it launched. It was far from it. What did Funcom do ? Did they delay the game ? No ... because they saw a good chance of selling 1 million copies before WOTLK and WAR launched. Did they tell ppl that the game wasn't ready ? No they did not do so. In fact they prevented EVERYONE in the general beta to acutally say anything about the true state of the game by keeping the game under NDA.
Funcom conned ppl into buying a product that was not in any acceptable state. Thats just a fact. Ofc gaming sites like MMORPG.COM did their part in hyping up the game by allowing the "positive" posts to stand and banning all the "negative" posts based on NDA.
What can we - the players do when a company behaves like this towards fellow gamers ? We can keep pointing it out and tell the truth in the matter. And hopefully we can prevent more disasters like Vanguard and AOC happening again in the near future. Cause its simply not acceptable that any product is sold in the state that AOC was when it was released.
I read the green...and can say without a doubt....you are biased
In green you say you "I played through the starting area over 15 times in beta"...what's your point? The starting area ISN'T the game.
The rest of what you say could be said about every MMO out there....so move on.
Obviously you have very litle knowlegde of how beta works. You know how often AOC beta had charecter vipes ? You know that the lvling curve was changed few times so ppl could go faster or slower through the content ? Obviously not.
The rest of what I say has nothing to do with other MMOs. And just for you to get a clue - You are welcome to point me out another MMO game that was sold in 1 million copies - but then had about 100K ppl playing few months later. That has NOTHING to do with what other MMO games are doing. Go take a look what Darkfall is doing and maybe get a clue on what small companies should be doing things. At least they are not stealing money from million ppl to finish the game. Thats just Funcom's way of doing things.
What I don't get is how people can blame Funcom for what I highlighted in red.
It's your own damn fault. show me the pics of Gaute holding a gun to your head forcing you to hand over money. You should have done your research. You should have waited until the game launched and waited until the reviews started coming out. You bought into the hype, so you need to take some of the responsibility too.
I suggest you read the text in green before you actually blame me. I was in fact one of the person who tried repeatedly to point out the real state of the game before it was launched. Sites like MMORPG.COM deleted those posts even if they had full proof that DX10 was not working but then allowed posts claiming DX10 was in the game to stand.
I played the game for months before retail and I know exactly what went on. I knew exactly what the game was about and I felt it as my duty to warn ppl on how much of a fraud was really going on. Everyone knows now how gigantic problem AOC had on launch. Not just technical problems but also basic rulset problems - something this is now beeing fix, one year after game realeased.
Here is the fact for you. AOC was not ready when it launched. It was far from it. What did Funcom do ? Did they delay the game ? No ... because they saw a good chance of selling 1 million copies before WOTLK and WAR launched. Did they tell ppl that the game wasn't ready ? No they did not do so. In fact they prevented EVERYONE in the general beta to acutally say anything about the true state of the game by keeping the game under NDA.
Funcom conned ppl into buying a product that was not in any acceptable state. Thats just a fact. Ofc gaming sites like MMORPG.COM did their part in hyping up the game by allowing the "positive" posts to stand and banning all the "negative" posts based on NDA.
What can we - the players do when a company behaves like this towards fellow gamers ? We can keep pointing it out and tell the truth in the matter. And hopefully we can prevent more disasters like Vanguard and AOC happening again in the near future. Cause its simply not acceptable that any product is sold in the state that AOC was when it was released.
I read the green...and can say without a doubt....you are biased
In green you say you "I played through the starting area over 15 times in beta"...what's your point? The starting area ISN'T the game.
The rest of what you say could be said about every MMO out there....so move on.
Obviously you have very litle knowlegde of how beta works. You know how often AOC beta had charecter vipes ? You know that the lvling curve was changed few times so ppl could go faster or slower through the content ? Obviously not.
The rest of what I say has nothing to do with other MMOs. And just for you to get a clue - You are welcome to point me out another MMO game that was sold in 1 million copies - but then had about 100K ppl playing few months later. That has NOTHING to do with what other MMO games are doing. Go take a look what Darkfall is doing and maybe get a clue on what small companies should be doing things. At least they are not stealing money from million ppl to finish the game. Thats just Funcom's way of doing things.
Obviously you don't
Beta does not mean "when it's released there will be no problems". Or maybe you have never been from beta to release in other games....dare I say....WOW? (released unplayable)
This is your way to bad mouth a company....nothing more....when all MMOs released have done bad after release....some more than others. Get over it
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
I dont play Darkfall or have any intrest in that game. You brought it up yes. I can not comment on Darkfall in other ways than saying that I respect their ways of developing an MMO by allowing limited number of players into their game at start. Thats something that all MMO developers should be considering. Its to late for Funcom tho. They went another route and it got them loosing 23 million USD - and they managed to go through an entire 4th quarter financial report without saying so... NOw.... thas PR.
You need to read the actual report for the numbers, not the presentation. Check Funcom's site for it.
Heat, pressure and time. The three things that make a diamond, also make a waffle.
Also known as Ardanwen.
You need to read the actual report for the numbers, not the presentation. Check Funcom's site for it.
No...we don't....and this is the irritation I get from this post. The actaul fact that you people care about any game maker's financial report amazes me....just play the game or don't
nuff said
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
that's good i guess. happy to hear it.
Only thing I can comment is this trend of MMOs being released unpolished and charging you $50 so they can finish their game while forcing you to stop playing their game because it currently sucks, especially when it's done affecting millions and when it's also released strategicaly before WAR and WOTK.
Gotta give thumbs up for DF, indy developer which is not worried about getting as much people as they can to spend $50 so they can finish their game.
If you want to make a pay-to-beta, make it as clear as possible - this is a lesson every MMO company should learn if they want a solid release. GW for example did that when they had months of weekends-only server avaiable for players, and for those who merely paid $10 for pre-order. And GW does not slash and bleed you for retail AND monthly fees although it is not technically a MMO, GW2 will be though.
And no, it doesn't have to be perfect, but playable.
Yea positive twist if you consider they layed off 70% of their staff last year. Great company. How quickly we as consumers forget that these Norwegian corporate scum bags feed off their employees hard work and our hard earned money to create unfinished products before cashing out employees like chips at a gambling table. Sorry to all the fan boys and girls who enjoy Conan and Anarchy just don't forget your good time cost a lot of people their livelyhood.
A link to the actual financial report and some numbers would have been nice, as otherwise this is largely a fluff PR piece.
Personally I think FunCom continues to demonstrate that they are much better at spin control and talking a good game than they are at making one.
If you like AoC, great.
if you don't like AoC, great.
What I continuosly fail to fathom is why some people take so much interest in Funcom's financial report...
I can totally understand people's undying bashing of Conan style of game play.
I can totally understand people's undying love of Conan's style of game play.
Granted, I am probably not enlighted as most people that visit MMORPG.com, as I am a normal beer drinking, sports loving, mmorpg playing fool. I do not want to discount someone's interest in the financial report of Funcom, but can someone explain to me why that is so important and such a topic of contention?
I'm not creative enough to have a signature
If you do a search it was 70% of CS staff from the US offices not the Oslo ones. There was an equal amount employeed after launch to cope with demand, when that level of demand wasn't there what would you do?
In actual fact this trend is common place - please also check out Turbine who actually layed a lot of people off - oh and don't forget EA Mythic whom also followed suit. Why is it that no one brings the bigger picture up overall when other companies layed off more ppl?
Thinking 70% in total is wrong. More like 70% of 60 additional people that were most likely contract based to begin with.