Funcom has announced disappointing sales figures for The Secret World.
Since its global release on July 3 rd , the massively multiplayer online role-playing has sold just 200,000 units. The figure was revealed in Funcom’s Q2 2012 financial report, with the firm blaming the lower than expected sales to competing games, as well as mixed reviews that negatively impacted the MMO’s sales “significantly.”
The Guild Wars 2 release date being announced two weeks before The Secret World’s release was referred to when citing reasons for lackluster sales, as was the September 25 th launch date for World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria.
Funcom stressed they will now “concentrate its new development on more focused, systems-driven games that have a high degree of community and player interaction. These games require less time and development cost to bring to market.”
The firm said they’re examining several “initiatives” to see more consumers purchasing The Secret World. The studio will also actively look to develop “smaller, more focused online games” that don’t require a large budget and take up a considerable period of development time, as was the case with their MMO.