Secret World date a "misunderstanding"

By Robert Purchese Published 1 February, 2011

Funcom debunks newspaper report.

Funcom's The Secret World MMO will not be released "in the next few months", Eurogamer can reveal.

Funcom said the claim, made by Canadian newspaper The Montreal Gazette, is a "misunderstanding".

"This must have been a misquote or a misunderstanding of some sorts," a Funcom spokesperson told Eurogamer. "We have never communicated a release date for The Secret World."

EA Partners signed publishing rights to The Secret World at the beginning of this year. But there was no release date announced, nor any indication of when the requisite beta test would be held. The Secret World hasn't even been confirmed as a 2011 title, on PC or Xbox 360.

Couple that with a marketing budget The Montreal Gazette reports to be "hundreds of millions", and it would have been a great surprise indeed to see The Secret World appear out of nowhere in "the next few months".

The Secret World hides a magical kingdom under a typical modern-day urban setting. What did Oli Welsh think when he saw The Secret World for Eurogamer last year?

"With its streamlined and flexible character development, promise of abundant loot and avatar-pimping options, slick presentation shorn of the typical MMO interface-creep, strong sense of atmosphere and place and character - and of course, with its clever splicing of down-to-earth contemporary setting with catch-all dark fantasy - The Secret World is already a very appealing MMO.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 1 year ago

    Dear Funcom,

    Less weird MMO that will probably die a slow painful death due to WoW, more Longest Journey.

    Yours,
    J0rdan_KZ

  • levitate #2 1 year ago

    It would be nothing short of a miracle if it was released that soon, nevermind the lack of delays...

  • nooneyouknow #3 1 year ago

    About a year ago, there was all sorts going on - there were screens floating about, trailers, teaser sites, emails etc... then all of sudden - nothing.
    Must admit that my interest has waned significantly.

  • AOFanboi #4 1 year ago

    Judging by AO they will probably want to ensure it is as messy at launch as tradition dictates...

  • YenRug #5 1 year ago

    I think I signed up to the website for this a few years back, along with being assigned a "group", I'd just assumed it was dead and buried due to the lack of updates!

  • Bander #6 1 year ago

    I am looking forward to this, but used to be under the impression that it had some connection to Longest Journey/Dreamfall, and that doesn't appear to be the case.

    When is Dreamfall's cliffhanger going to be resolved? It's all gone a bit Shenmue really.

  • Acrid #7 1 year ago

    Was very excited about this when it was first announced, I'd completely forgotten about it until now though.
    It still looks good but I just don't feel I can invest time in to an MMO, I did that with Warcraft and missed out on so many great games, which I'm still trying to catch up on.
    Thankfully HD redo's of games like Beyond Good & Evil are helping me to play the games WOW caused me to let slip by.

  • Nithron #8 1 year ago

    Please don't turn out to be a turn-based, roll-the-dice RPG under a thin veneer of real-time-ness. Every single game like that just gets steamrollered by WoW, because it essentially has the exact same gameplay, and is currently the undisputed market leader.

    I don't quite get why vast numbers of MMOs with that same gameplay get released, when their eventual fate became obvious after the first time it happened.

  • riz23 #9 1 year ago

    This story seems exactly like the sort of smoke and mirrors, baffle and bullshit, that the Secret World is all about. It could be an incredibly smart PR campaign but unfortunately it's probably just some inept journalism.

  • Poontash #10 1 year ago

    Think I'm the only person looking forward to this but I do love conspiracy theory magic craziness bullshit themes. If it's anything like Constantine/Hellblazer, or the Invisibles, I'll buy it.

  • Valland #11 1 year ago

    For a moment there, I thought I was watching a trailer for a Sims3 DLC.

  • Vengefulfrog #12 1 year ago

    @Bander: As far as I know, the next game related to The Longest Journey is "Dreamfall: Chapters". It is supposed to be an MMO. I read that the story is ready but the game is not in development. They haven't said if they will ever make the game or not.


    If some of you want information about The Secret World, there's a small TSW newspaper published monthly on the fansite http://crygaia.net/