Funcom's Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue

by William Dobson May 16th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, The Secret World, Casual

Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan:

Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty
The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 '08 (the introduction of free trials helped here)
A solid and stable customer base for the quarter
Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods

Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 '08 report are also keeping to their development schedules -- the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 '09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.

Tags: age-of-conan, anarchy-online, ao, aoc, browser-based, casual, earnings, f2p, financial-crisis, financial-report, financials, free-to-play, funcom, java, revenue, subscriptions, the-secret-world, tsw

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TheNilvarg said on 11:35AM 5-16-2009

GOD, I hope they don't let AO die.

Pedro said on 2:18PM 5-16-2009

I would like to know why don't they release the subs numbers. Is it that bad?...
At least released their numbers and aren't afraid of showing to people.

pedrothehutt said on 11:42PM 5-16-2009

Well, in their defense, Turbine and Codemasters don't release the numbers for their MMOs either. Currently it is anyone's guess how many people play LotRO. And that while it certainly seems to be a successful MMO.

Maybe they believe that nobody likes a braggart.

Pedro said on 5:47AM 5-17-2009

Yes, i know that i just find the standards of so many people out there appaling. When WAR doesn't release their subscription numbers everyone says that the game is surely dying and that will face its inevitable doom.
However, whenever other MMO doeesn't do the same nobody seems to care, even if those games are bigger flops than WAR as is AoC.

Lateris said on 3:31PM 5-16-2009

AO is declining because they got rid of the great support and devs they had and switched them over to AoC. In addition they put off the engine upgrade with the correct amount of staff to take on such a project. That would breathe new life into a game that already has a ton of content.

Snowyjoe said on 10:57PM 5-16-2009

Funcom is slowly coming to it's end.

It's loosing it's magic fast....

Probably because they killed off April Ryan in Arcadia.......

They better bring back April in Secret World and tell us what happend to Zoe!