Funcom is not doing too well.

[Gargle]

In recent months:

• Stock is not performing well.
• The 3 large MMOs have dipped in revenue due to age and competition.
• Lego has underperformed.
• They recently sacked 7 people.
• They've stated that they will scale back resources/employees depending on the revenues of a project.
• They've now clearly stated that if it's not cash flow positive it is out.
• They have less openings.
• They have started to develop another game.

Since Dreamworld is now cross platform the new game may be aimed towards that. This is pure speculation. Another speculation is that Funcom does not seem to want to invest in Anarchy Online in the near future.

[Poko]

Nice...so AO is ready to go offline?

I've always been curious as to how much "cash flow positive" ao is. Anyone know by any chance?

[Raggy]

Nice...so AO is ready to go offline?

I've always been curious as to how much "cash flow positive" ao is. Anyone know by any chance?

We're essentially paying for our own server support since the whole rotating dev team thing came into place, as TSW and AoC pay the salaries.

[Esssch]

• They have started to develop another game.

[Tomium]

I say this with all love and humor, but...

haters gonna hate.

We're (Funcom) fine.
As to AO and its future, they are in the hands of the great Michi, a guy who knows AO inside and out.

[Poko]

I say this with all love and humor, but...

haters gonna hate.

We're (Funcom) fine.
As to AO and its future, they are in the hands of the great Michi, a guy who knows AO inside and out.

Not to be rude, but I could know a company, or a game inside and out. But that doesn't erase the fact thay it could go offline sometime soon, if you get what im saying

[Caloss2]

Indeed.

[Gargle]

Nice...so AO is ready to go offline?

I've always been curious as to how much "cash flow positive" ao is. Anyone know by any chance?

No not ready to go offline. However, the trend is very negative and has been for a long time. Servers have closed, staff have been restructured or left, production has been delayed consistently, no new hiring of staff for AO. Instead of focusing on finishing textures, graphics, an alternative levelling path for new players from Nascene to Inferno that is quest based with rewards and then putting it on Steam to create cash flow to be able to hire more developers, they're adding content where it really is questionable if it has the greatest impact. If this game was thriving, sure go right ahead and dilly dally with adding inf missions or get people to vote on stuff or fiddle with rebalance. But that's not really what you should be doing imho when a ship is slowly sinking. Of course every idiot has an opinion, and that definitely includes me.

[Gargle]

I say this with all love and humor, but...

haters gonna hate.

We're (Funcom) fine.
As to AO and its future, they are in the hands of the great Michi, a guy who knows AO inside and out.

Michi has my fullest respect and highest regard. I wrote somewhere that I wish we had him as a GD back in 2003 and onwards.

[Gargle]

I say this with all love and humor, but...

haters gonna hate.

We're (Funcom) fine.
As to AO and its future, they are in the hands of the great Michi, a guy who knows AO inside and out.

As for the haters will hate, those bullet points were from the quarterly report. Next one is due on the 27 of Feb, 2015. Hopefully things will have improved but judging by the stock price...

[Zeephonz]

I say this with all love and humor, but...

haters gonna hate.

We're (Funcom) fine.
As to AO and its future, they are in the hands of the great Michi, a guy who knows AO inside and out.

Couldn't resist...

[ThatsNotMyName]

im scurred, sum1 hold me plz

[Mastablasta]

Maybe they'll try to ape Game of War: Fire Age? Or Candy Crush: Saga, which brought in some ridiculous amount of dollars last year?

[Gargle]

Hopefully the release of TLJ on iOS etc created a substantial cash flow but I highly doubt AO will benefit from it.

[MachSchau]

Yes, spend money where there is no money. When this game hits Steam (SoonTM) there wont be any new hirings for AO development. That money they will gain will go directly in supporting all projects/the new MMO.

I am still waiting on new content. 6 years and counting. (Flavors of the month dont count).

[Difs]

Sooooo... This is the official answer: "haters gonna hate".
Good job, keep up the good work!
(I hope you smell my sarcasm)

[Ophiuchus]

Steam needs DX change, DX change needs engine, engine needs Live Team coders to finish it. FC isn't interested in investing further in its currently released games. It's all about Lego and the future games. At this point we just need the engine in its current form with the major performance issues hammered out (half of them related to logging I bet). It'll be disappointing, but it'll stop holding up the queue of things that need to happen. Maybe the Steam release can generate enough of a resurgence to afford some more live team coder time on the engine to finish up all the extra stuff once it's live.

[Difs]

Steam needs DX change, DX change needs engine, engine needs Live Team coders to finish it. FC isn't interested in investing further in its currently released games. It's all about Lego and the future games. At this point we just need the engine in its current form with the major performance issues hammered out (half of them related to logging I bet). It'll be disappointing, but it'll stop holding up the queue of things that need to happen. Maybe the Steam release can generate enough of a resurgence to afford some more live team coder time on the engine to finish up all the extra stuff once it's live.

what do you expect when funcom employees say things like "haters gonna hate"
this means funcom is srs bsns

[haxi]

I will wait patiently until Netcraft confirms it.

[DigitalBath]

"I say this with all love and humor, but..."

Possibly the most intentionally ignored line in this thread. Funnily enough, it makes the posters ignoring it look ridiculous.