Funcom Games

Funcom Productions A/S (OSE: FUNCOM) is a Norwegian video game developer specializing in online games. It is best known for the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) titles The Secret World, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and its The Longest Journey series of adventure games. In addition to their Oslo, Norway headquarters, Funcom has offices in the United States, China, and Switzerland.

HISTORY
Founded in 1993 by Erik Gloersen, Ian Neil, Andre Backen, Gaute Godager and Olav Mørkrid, the company is one of the leading European independent game developers and publishers. They focus mainly on PC games but have also released games on other consoles such as Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, Sega Saturn and Xbox.

In December 2005, Funcom was the first Norwegian game developer to be listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

On March 14, 2007, the company abandoned traditional "offline" product distribution (e.g. on optical discs) in favor of digital distribution completely. The main reason for this decision was admittedly the financial losses due to software piracy.

On August 21, 2008, Funcom laid off half of its Customer Service department located in Durham, North Carolina. On November 22, 2008, third parties reported that Funcom fired additional 70% of the staff in their US workforce, possibly endangering future releases.

In September 17, 2008, Gaute Godager left Funcom, stating he was dissatisfied with certain elements of Age of Conan, which he directed. Craig Morrison took over the direction of AoC.

On February 23, 2009, Funcom reported financial losses of approximately $23 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. The unsuccessful launch of Age of Conan was cited as the reason for such steep decline. The chief of DnB NOR estimated that 100,000 subscribers played the game at the time of the report, far below the publisher's expectations, though this numbers were not confirmed by Funcom itself.

Founded 1993

Headquarters Oslo, Norway

http://www.Funcom.com
Funcom Games on Steam