Category:Funcom Productions

Funcom Productions A/S is a Norwegian game company, best known as the developer of MMORPG PC-game Anarchy Online. Besides its Oslo, Norway, headquarters, Funcom has offices in the USA, China, and Switzerland.

Due to the severe disappointment that "Age of Conan" caused with massive stock decline from 54 per share on May 21st 2008 to 13.5 per share on August 21st, Funcom is commonly known as "Failcom" within the gamer community.

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 the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, SNES 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 21 August, 2008, Funcom layed off half of its Customer Service department located in Durham, NC due to financial issues stemming from lack of subscription renewals for its most recent MMO, Age of Conan.

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. 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. 

List of games

 * The Secret World &mdash; MMORPG (PC & Xbox 360), previously known as The World Online.
 * Dreamfall Chapters &mdash; (PC & Xbox 360 (?))
 * Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures &mdash; MMORPG (PC & Xbox 360 - 2008)
 * Dreamfall &mdash; Adventure (PC & Xbox - 2006)
 * Midgard &mdash; MMORPG (PC - cancelled)
 * No Escape &mdash; Shooter (PC - 2000)
 * The Longest Journey &mdash; Adventure (PC - 2000)
 * Anarchy Online &mdash; MMORPG (PC - 2001)
 * Speed Freaks also known as Speed Punks &mdash; Racing (PlayStation)
 * Casper &mdash; Puzzle Adventure (Sega Saturn)
 * CMX &mdash; Racing (PlayStation)
 * Winter Gold &mdash; Sports (Super Nintendo)
 * Steel Rebellion &mdash; Strategy (PC - cancelled)
 * Daze Before Christmas &mdash; Action (Genesis/SNES)
 * Samurai Shodown &mdash; Fighting (Sega CD)
 * NBA Hangtime &mdash; Sports (Genesis)
 * Fatal Fury Special &mdash; Fighting (Sega CD)
 * Nightmare Circus &mdash; Action (Genesis)
 * Disney's Pocahontas &mdash; Adventure (Genesis)
 * A Dinosaur's Tale &mdash; Adventure (Genesis)