[Kolzig]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57362

Funcom took it heavily during the "financial crisis", 34 million dollars losses...

Olav Sandnes the chief financial officer has resigned because of a weak business year.

How does this affect the future of the Dreamfall: Chapters games?

[Ascovel]

From what they write, it's all because the falling popularity of Age of Conan. Risky stuff those MMORPGs.

[therabidfrog]

Wow and Age of Conan hasn't even been around that long. I heard it was great. What's the deal?

[Fantasysci5]

Oh no!!!! I hope it still gets done!!!!

[AndreaDraco83]

It's a disappointing news, one that I hope won't interfere with Funcom other projects and, of course and particularly, with Dreamfall: Chapters.

[Melanie68]

With this economy, it's hard to say what will happen (and to even try and predict it). Maybe they don't even know yet.

They're not the only ones in trouble, either.

[Banderwocky]

So sad. I hope they stick by Dreamfall: Chapters.

[locqlynn]

i disagree,its not because of the economy.
If anything, with this economy people are going to stay home more, and play games alot more often.
However with aoc you need a mid-high end pc. that can cost some money, but not that much, i could build a rig for 500 that could run it on med settings easily.

World of warcraft can pretty much run on any machine out right now, it has very very low system requirements.

for 14.99 a month is not a bad deal, when you think of that fact it gives you countless hours of fun at your home, and when your home,, your not spending money

the only problem i see for game companies now is piracy. You really need to make people pay per month, to see any profit, and if you don't, it will have a torrent file on the web

[Lucien21]

It's nothing to do with the economy. The sales for video games in the last year have jumped to $32 billion overtaking DVD's.

Like the Article Mel linked to says it's the rising costs of development on the 360 and PS3 where games are costing $40 -$100 million to make.

[Ascovel]

Looking at all this it seems better to stick to making adventure games.

[Lee in Limbo]

Sad news.

Interesting article.

I refuse to speculate on DF:C's future. I rest in the knowledge that Ragnar will finish telling his story somehow, and when he does, I'll be there.

[darkredshoes]

Age of Conan destroyed Funcom. It's a shame because it had so much going for it. They made some terrible gameplay decisions, I heard, and it lost them a lot of subscribers.

[Dale Baldwin]

I can't see The Secret World helping Funcom much either.

[darkredshoes]

Originally Posted by Dale Baldwin

I can't see The Secret World helping Funcom much either.

fabulous title, though.

[cwapitm]

Should be interesting to see what Ragnar has to say about it in his blog. I still have hope that it's not over for Dreamfall Chapters.

[QDream]

Worst news ever, DC is my most anticipated game right now and with this news I don't see it dropping in the next 2 years

[Squinky]

There's hope.

[Collector]

Originally Posted by Squinky

There's hope.

Which also mentions a TLJ 2.

[frantici]

It's mostly write offs.

To explain further, every company sets a value on assets like game engine or hardware, this determines the companies value on paper.
Now what Funcom did was write off server capacity for age of conan, age of conan itself and computers etc.

This then sets a record loss in the accounting, but also would suggest that they will have a record profit in q1 2009.

Funcom got about the same amount in cash and has no problem completing all projects in progress now.

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by Collector

Which also mentions a TLJ 2.

Now, when I think that Gray Matter was taking an eternity, here's Mr. Tornquist who basically foresee three to four years to get the first episode of Dreamfall: Chapters. I'm starting to getting tired of this kind of attitude...