GRTV: Post-launch Secret World

Funcom have been going through a rough patch with revenue for their free-to-play MMORPG Age of Conan dropping and their latest effort The Secret World falling short of exceptations as far as subscribers go. We met up with lead designer Martin Bruusgaard and lead content designer Joel Bylos at Gamescom to discuss what the launch was like and what the road ahead looks like.

"It's very important to show our players that we are committed to this game and to never let it grow static in any way. We've commited to these monthly updates, already one month after launch we had our first update, we call them issues. So we released issue number one where we gave out new missions, two new nightmare dungeons, and also a marketplace where players can buy and sell items," said Martin Bruusgard.

"In a couple of weeks we will release issue 2 which will be even more missions, there will be a hair dresser where you can dye and change your hair colour and hair style - we've added a lot of hair styles to the game. We're adding a plastic surgeon so you can alter the way you look if you're not happy with the character you made at launch. We've also added a whole new weapon category that we call auxiliary weapons and the first addition to that will be a rocket launcher. We are constantly pumping out content and it's very important to keep doing that, whilst of course fixing bugs and working on the game that's already out there," Bruusgaard concludes.

"Longer term we've already announced the first raid which is coming in October and takes place in Time Square, so we're showing that here at Gamescom," said Joel Bylos. "And we're also talking about the very first playfield update, the big zone that's coming, and that is early 2013 we're releasing Tokyo. So we are sort showing all our plans for the future, we're laying our cards on the table."

When asked whether a free-to-play was something that was being contemplated the Funcom duo had the following to say:

"It's something that we've of course discussed," says Bruusgaard. "Like business model, where do we want to be? We are very comfortable with a subscription model. It goes a little bit back to what I said earlier we need to prove to our player base that we are committed to this game and we are giving them their moneys worth in content."