Gold Rush
11-30-2009, 02:15 AM
Funcom publishes sharp revenue drop for Q3
by Rubi Bayer Nov 17th 2009 at 5:00PM
Funcom has released its financial results for Q3, and it's not pretty. Revenue was down 68.5% to 5.7 million USD, and expected to drop even more in Q4. This time last year they were reporting a profit of $3.3 million, a strong contrast to the current $9.6 million loss. They see a few reasons for this drop, including some stiff competition: "The Company ran a successful re-evaluation campaign during July, increasing the number of subscribers to the game. However, the launch of two major competing MMO-games during Q3 led to a subsequent reduction in subscriber levels."
Funcom remains optimistic, though, thanks to numerous upcoming projects. The Secret World is reported to be "progressing well", Age of Conan is planning a launch in Korea, the "Rise of the Godslayer" expansion for AoC is on its way, and Funcom recently received a grant to create an extreme sports MMO.
The full report can be viewed here. (http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/Funcom_Q3_2009_report.pdf)
You would think such big losses of money would have those in charge of a company sweating out details and being extra-careful and diligent over any new games it releases.
Apparently, as with Cryptic, Mythic, George Bush Jr. and others, this is not the case. It seems BS has replaced common sense. So, the lessons of Enron still have not been learned; lie and keep lying and hope your shareholders and the public will not notice, even if you were caught with a knife over a bloody corpse and have your mouth stuffed with the corpse's internal organs, one can still claim they were in the Bahamas and nowhere near the scene of the crime?
I exaggerate, of course, but not by much it seems...
by Rubi Bayer Nov 17th 2009 at 5:00PM
Funcom has released its financial results for Q3, and it's not pretty. Revenue was down 68.5% to 5.7 million USD, and expected to drop even more in Q4. This time last year they were reporting a profit of $3.3 million, a strong contrast to the current $9.6 million loss. They see a few reasons for this drop, including some stiff competition: "The Company ran a successful re-evaluation campaign during July, increasing the number of subscribers to the game. However, the launch of two major competing MMO-games during Q3 led to a subsequent reduction in subscriber levels."
Funcom remains optimistic, though, thanks to numerous upcoming projects. The Secret World is reported to be "progressing well", Age of Conan is planning a launch in Korea, the "Rise of the Godslayer" expansion for AoC is on its way, and Funcom recently received a grant to create an extreme sports MMO.
The full report can be viewed here. (http://www.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/Funcom_Q3_2009_report.pdf)
You would think such big losses of money would have those in charge of a company sweating out details and being extra-careful and diligent over any new games it releases.
Apparently, as with Cryptic, Mythic, George Bush Jr. and others, this is not the case. It seems BS has replaced common sense. So, the lessons of Enron still have not been learned; lie and keep lying and hope your shareholders and the public will not notice, even if you were caught with a knife over a bloody corpse and have your mouth stuffed with the corpse's internal organs, one can still claim they were in the Bahamas and nowhere near the scene of the crime?
I exaggerate, of course, but not by much it seems...