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Funcom Q4 2012 casually announces...
gamesrfun
Member Posts: 127
As if it wasn't a big deal, Funcom casually announced in their financial report that they had fired half their staff in Q4/2012 and that in Q1/2013 they anticipated axing another 25% of their staff.
And remember this is Funcom, so they don't mean 50%, and then 25% of the remainder. They would have been clear if that was the case.
No, it means that Funcom in 6 months will have shed 75% of its employees.
After all, the company is barely able to keep 7 million dollars a quarter flowing through the company coffers, despite having 2 AAA MMOs.
Other fun notes:
1) The hub of Funcom in Norway has been gutted to less than 40 people.
2) If you were an Asian based Funcom employee, you lost your job.
3) If you were an employee in the U.S., you most likely lost your job.
4) Montreal was saved from the most damage.
5) Funcom has significantly more debt now than its cash position.
6) Funcom is basically signing a deal with the devil to borrow a mere 10 million dollars more. Recognize that the company is losing about 5 million US per quarter (although admittedly a good chunk of that is depreciation as they had to once again chop off another 3 million in value of The Secret World)
Comments
They moved some Montreal people to North Carolina. But it was not a new office.
In other words, Montreal people kept their jobs, although some are now in the U.S..
Last time they released employment numbers they were near 360...so that brings them down to 90 minus customer service: 40 in Norway and 50 between Montreal and North Carolina.
They really underperfomed badly with TSW, considering their expectations. I like the game, but financially it never took off, and I'm guessing Funcom was depending on it.
Sad to see them struggle so badly. They've made some of my favorite games, and they always bring something at least a bit different to the table, but they've never exactly managed to make it big. I think Conan was their chance and they botched it. It probably caused a lack of interest in TSW, too.
Here's still hoping they recover.
The Brave Do Not Fear The Grave
I think it started with Anarchy Online. Horrid release... like all of their games but once you got passed that was a really good game. But even a couple years later it still had some same bugs and problems.
Mem leak anyone?
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
Anarchy Online was my first mmorpg and I played it for 3 years.
Goodbye Anarchy Online remake and AO2. :[
Never heard of any news of a an AO2 in the works. I think AO just needs to bring a much more experienced release team to finish and polish their products because it just seems they lack that in their designs. AO was a fun game and enjoyed it. AoC... Tortage was good after that blah. And again another game with a memleak at release. TSW enjoyed beta but did not have that much interest in it. Bought it when it went B2P for $15. At that price was a good game for a bit.
They do have good concepts and ideas. Decent design but always with some major flaws that it takes them way too long after release to fix.
Besides EA I don't want any company to fail or disappear.
Operating profit (EBIT), negatively impacted by 5,145 TUSD impairment charges was -5,947 TUSD for 4Q12 compared to -5,189 TUSD for 4Q11. Result for the period was -6,433 TUSD compared to -6,096 TUSD for 4Q11.
Perhaps not....
Some F2P group with loads of cash (like Perfect World) will probably buyout Funcom and turn AO, AoC and TSW into cash shop centric money spinners.
Oh the Horror, the Horror...
Not sure where you're getting some of your information. I've read the report and the presentation, and it is probably the most positive Funcom position I've seen in a long time.
3 main hubs. Montreal is now dedicated to mobile games, developers of non-mobile games shifted to NC office. Oslo office will be dedicated to mid-core games but currently its entire 40 person staff is fully dedicated to getting Lego minfigures out early 2014.
Profits Q4'13 3500tusd more than Q4'12
Positive cash flow
Paid down debts; roughly 7,000tusd
Working with KGJ to restructure existing loans
Conan movie staring Arnold confirmed; aimed for 2014
The Longest Journey/Dreamfall lincensed out
Montreal office already secured two new deals with Lego
By no means is Funcom a huge success, nor have they ever been, but things do seem to be looking up for them.
edit: seeing people calculating impairments in revenues. While that has to be presented in the financial reports, an impairment isn't an actual expense that occurred during the period. Rather it is an adjustment to the value of an asset.
revamp is still in the works according to the info from this week
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=604018
they even posted a video some days ago from the new engine port
http://youtu.be/Ej2_VvvGTRQ
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
.
.
The Return of ELITE !
AO has atroxes in pink tutus, but yeah, i totally agree wth you on your point, one of the few studios not afraid to do things differently, add something from themselves, instead just copy paste the standard themepark model into a new IP
alltho their best mmo is their oldest one - Anarchy Online, while both AoC and TSW are different from most of other modern MMOs it was AO wich was totally unique
sadly, alltho deep inside im still hoping the new engine wont turn out vaporware, that FC wont just die, at least not before ressurecting Anarchy Online pushing enuff life into it to last another decade,,,
Games previously played: AO, AoC, Aion, AoW, Eve, SWTor, WaR, STO, TSW, DCUO, FE, BP, ProjectEntropia, FootballSuperstars!
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
Funcom have been very open about what they are doing, and the restructuring taking place, and its a very positive step for them, certainly not doom and gloom, just smart business and long overdue.
It makes me much happier to see them taking action to improve things.
I think this is FCs most important year to either go down or rise like a Phoenix..
AO engine revamp, making the game future proof
AoC crafting revamp and single server tech, PvP changes and additions
TSW continuing with solid content, animation system revamp, PvP additions
if they get all this done in 2013 -> epic win
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
.
.
The Return of ELITE !
Thank you augustgrace. I too read the Q4 report and didn't get the doom and gloom feeling resonating within this thread. If anyone was hoping for Blizzard, NCSoft or Nexon like numbers from a Norwegian based game devloper, think again. Funcom is a prime example of a small game developer who caught a break with a well known IP and tried to capitalize on that in order to position themselves for all their future endeavors. Unfortunately things didn't pan out in their favor. The words "spreading yourself too thin" have never rang truer.
So to me it seems they have learned their lesson and have taken their lumps. And are now poised to restructure and consolidate to three offices (down from 5) with 3 independently focused business areas:
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Last numbers I heard said they made about 35% of the amount they needed to make with TSW and that was just to break even......i think youre right also that AoC hurt the sales for TSW because it angered so many.
Their brand new MMO is barely treading water with no prospects for increased revenue for at least 12-18 months. At best they can tread water and even then they are barely scraping by.
They have no money for future development considering that they must keep millions of dollars available on their line of credit, of which they so handily ignore as part of their carried debt.
I mean, sure, getting rid of 250+ employees helps, but what do you do then? I can't imagine spirits are really high now that 75% of your friends lost their jobs.
I agree. I don't know where I'm going to go for a more mature setting. Those games have issues but damn the setting was fantastic in all three of their big releases. Maybe cartoon pink elf tree people are the only future in the MMO industry....it's a shame.
As other's have said I think the release of AoC really screwed their name and TSW. I didn't even open my wife's copy of AoC it was so damn bad at release.
• A new business model was launched for The Secret World 12th December increasing sales by more than 30% overall and quadrupling activity in the game
But what you are not understanding is that Funcom has NEVER been a really big company. I'm sure they are use to running things with small teams with even smaller budgets. We are talking about a game company that got it's big break in 2008. That's a little less than 5 years ago. And honestly I don't recall AO releasing to stellar praises. So it's not like Funcom is not use to being behind the 8 ball and building from what they have. If anything you have to admit that they are one of few game developers that has always supported their products. They maybe slow and suffer from delusions of grandeur at times. But they have never abandoned their games or it's players.
Hell the last content update for AO was 2009, after AoC was released. That along with the announcement of a new gaming engine for AO still in the works is just two examples of supporting all their games, no matter how old. They are also one of few game devlopers that not only develop but publish their own games still.
Look I'm no huge fan of Funcom, I never played AO, barely played AoC and played TSW for only a month. But I'm not so blinded by ignorance that I don't see that they are at least making a effort to put out something different with each mmo they release. NONE of their mmos play like the previous one...NONE.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."