Funcom

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Funcom Productions A/S
Type Public
Founded 1993
Headquarters Oslo, Norway
Key people Gaute Godager, Co-founder
Trond Arne Aas, CEO
Industry Computer and video game industry
Products The Longest Journey
Anarchy Online
Age of Conan
Dreamfall
Revenue USD 6.895 million (2007)
Operating income ▼ USD 7.462 million (2007)
Net income USD 2.164 million (2007)
Employees 322
Website www.funcom.com

Funcom Productions A/S (OSE: FUNCOM)is a Norwegian computer and video game developer and publisher, most known for making the new MMORPG game Age of Conan. Besides its Oslo, Norway, headquarters, Funcom has offices in USA, China, and Switzerland.

Contents

[edit] 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 has also released games on other consoles such as Super NES, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis and Xbox.

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

On 14 March 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.[1]

[edit] Well-known games

The Longest Journey was produced by Ragnar Tørnquist and was very well received both by critics and users. The game was published in 8 languages: English, Norwegian, French, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Russian and Spanish. The game was also released in other countries, but mainly in English-speaking ones.

Anarchy Online is a critically acclaimed online game, more specifically a MMORPG, with 20 international awards; including several from RPG Vault. Funcom issued several expansions; The Notum Wars, Alien Invasion, Shadowlands and Lost Eden. Founder Gaute Godager was the first Game Director, before Marius Enge released Alien Invasion and took over at the release of Shadowlands. However, shortly after the release of Alien Invasion, Morten Byom took over. Later, near the release of the Lost Eden expansion, Byom moved on to the Age of Conan team, and was succeeded as Game Director by Craig Morrison, also known as "Silirrion". Following the game, a book has been written about the pre-history about the planet and also a CD with music from the game has been released.

In the spring of 2006, the company released the sequel to The Longest Journey for the Xbox and PC, entitled Dreamfall.

Funcom has also developed an online action RPG for PC and console entitled Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. This product utilizes the Conan the Cimmerian franchise license. The PC version of this game was released on May 20, 2008, and the Xbox 360 version is scheduled to be released in 2009.

The development of their next MMO (called The Secret World) was announced on November 5, 2007. [1]

[edit] List of games

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007)
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[edit] References

  1. ^ Hagerup, Eivind (2007-03-14). Funcom drops "offline" PC games. Adventure Gamers. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  2. ^ Funcom Latest MMORPG announced for PC and Xbox 360
  3. ^ The Secret World is secret no more
  4. ^ Funcom awarded grant from Norwegian Film Fund. Funcom (2007-03-01). Retrieved on 2007-03-01.

[edit] External links

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