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CEO Ole Schreiner on Funcom's future and that police investigation
Funcom CEO Ole Schreiner recently spoke with GamesIndustry.biz in a lengthy interview that covers everything from the performance of The Secret World to the future of the company to the recent Økokrim raid. The police action has to do with former CEO Trond Arne Aas and accusations of insider trading relating to The Secret World's launch. "What we know is actually very little and the few things we do know, we can't talk about because it's an ongoing case," Schreiner says. "The charges are two-fold. The first is that Funcom, between August 2011 and August 2012, manipulated the market. The other is that we had wrongfully filed insider information." It's not all gloom-and-doom going forward, though, as Funcom has gotten the Dreamworld tech behind Age of Conan and The Secret World to work on consoles, Android, and iOS devices. "It's not so much about the technology as the knowledge, which we've been building for 13 years," Schreiner explains. "It's a platform -- it has all the elements you need to make, run, and maintain a game from the production tools right down to the customer service and QA tools." Schreiner is also optimistic about Funcom's future, which is currently focused on LEGO Minifigures Online. "This new strategy is a natural evolution of the company," he states. "We would have taken this path anyway, no matter how The Secret World turned out."
Funcom back to business as usual after Økokrim document seizures
Yesterday's Økokrim raid on Funcom's Oslo development office is in the company's rear-view mirror according to director of communications Erling Ellingsen. Ellingsen told Massively that while Funcom is "fully cooperating" with the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, it's now back to business as usual. Production on all Funcom games continues as normal, and the company remains fully committed to games in development as well as the continued operation and updating of existing live games. Yesterday's events is not expected to have any impact on the company's continued operation or the development on future releases. Funcom's key priorities are the development of the upcoming LEGO Minifigures Online, as well as supporting and expanding on the live games Age of Conan, The Secret World and Anarchy Online with new and exciting content. In terms of The Secret World, developers are currently in the process of finalizing its ninth content update, which will send players on a grand adventure through Tokyo, and Funcom will be releasing new information and screenshots from this update soon. Trading in the company stock was only suspended temporarily yesterday, and trading was back to normal shortly thereafter.
The Secret World dev Funcom charged with suspected trading violations
Okokrim, Norway's central authority for dealing with economic and environmental crime, charged MMO studio Funcom this morning with suspected trading infringements. The alleged violations are based around information provided by Funcom for the year leading up to the launch of The Secret World, the company's headline game. The news followed the Oslo stock market imposing a "matching halt" at 9.30AM Norway time, essentially stopping trading on company stock. According to a press release issued by Funcom via the Oslo exchange's NewsWeb, normal trading resumed three hours later. We've reached out to Funcom and Okokrim for more details, but according to a press release from Funcom issued to the Oslo exchange, Okokrim believes there's a "probability" the company has not kept up the required records during the relevant time, noted as between August 2011 and The Secret World's launch in July 2012, and the two months following launch. "The company is fully cooperating with Okokrim," reads the press release in closing. There are various reports of Okokrim performing a "raid" on Funcom this morning, with photos of the unit's black vans outside the Dreamfall studio's Oslo headquarters, and Okokrim staff members entering the offices with cardboard boxes. Funcom came under scrutiny in 2012, when former CEO Trond Arne Aas was investigated for suspected trading based on insider knowledge. Aas stepped down as Funcom CEO the day before The Secret World launched, then sold much of his stock in the company in the months after; Funcom's stock had dropped eight-fold from the game's launch to the time of investigation.
