Funcom receives grant to create extreme sports MMO

by Rubi Bayer Nov 4th 2009 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Sports, New titles, News items

In between navigating the sometimes-choppy waters of Age of Conan and working toward the launch of The Secret World, Funcom is having a busy year, but it looks like they are adding one more project to the pile as well.

Funcom has been given a grant worth NOK 1.5 million -- $262,000 US -- in order to create a new extreme sports MMO. Funcom's Director of Communications Erling Ellingsen says "Yes, I can confirm that Funcom is working on a new project called Board with the World. This will be a free-to-play social MMO focusing on the world of extreme sports. [...] First and foremost we will be focusing on snowboarding, with the possibility of adding different sports later. We also want this to be a social world rich with different types of media content and pop-cultural elements such as music, video and even fashion. It is definitely exciting, and we look forward to revealing more on this later."

Work on the project is expected to begin in January 2010, and we can expect more details as it progresses.

Tags: erling-ellingsen, extreme-sports, funcom, grant, new-titles, sports-mmo

Related From Massively

The Secret World revealing more secrets soon, Funcom confirms Kingsmouth connection
14 days ago
Court documents say Bethesda's MMO already under dev, rumor says it's Elder Scrolls
20 days ago
Rumor: Blizzard's next MMO to be an MMOFPS
28 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LaughingTarget said on 10:40AM 11-04-2009

Not everything can be made into an MMO.

TheIncognitoGuy said on 10:57AM 11-04-2009

Absolutely. I don't understand how you keep people playing a game about.. snowboarding?

royale said on 10:43AM 11-04-2009

WoW killer

alt255 said on 10:53AM 11-04-2009

I dont understand why they think this is a good idea... I just hope it doesnt kill Hello Kitty Online.

Jess said on 10:59AM 11-04-2009

Welcome to Death Race

Aaron said on 11:03AM 11-04-2009

This actually seems like a fairly cool idea to me. Make it a $40-50 game, F2P (as mentioned in the article) with microtransactions for things like new boards, board graphics, gear, but then can also gain in game currency via competitions like races and freestyle things. There could even be crafting of boards and gear, building race courses (for in-game money or just for the hell of it), and who knows what else.

As long as the actual snowboarding mechanisms are top notch I can see this as being a pretty fun time waster. Obviously not something you're gonna get completely engrossed in, but really a perfect candidate for an F2P model.

Think outside the box people! :)

Goulashia said on 11:05AM 11-04-2009

lols at the picture you used.

JP said on 12:29PM 11-04-2009

yea. best photo shop ever. LOL!!

pogger said on 11:13AM 11-04-2009

Hmm... PvP would be grand! One faction can be snowboarders, the other faction can be skeet-shooters... can't get any more fun than that.

Flolah said on 11:25AM 11-04-2009

Oh man, I can see that now.

Pull!

Sephirah said on 11:33AM 11-04-2009

I'm the only one to think that they'll rush The Secret World to develop this sport MMO and we'll see another AoC?

Pingles said on 12:07PM 11-04-2009

If they shake things up with a bit of creative PvP I could see playing something like this. Whether it's CTF on slaloms or "tag" or even weapons fixed to the board so you have to aim with your movement (a la WWI fighters) I can see the draw.

Dblade said on 12:21AM 11-05-2009

What's ironic about this is that a snowboarding MMO already exists, Project Powder at http://projectpowder.outspark.com/ Riding Star is also in closed beta in Korea

So funcom is getting a grant for doing something other companies have already done.