Funcom abandons Xbox
'We'd rather make money'
Anarchy Online developer Funcom has made a strategic decision to move away from console development and concentrate on its online gaming projects. The decision was described by president Andre Backen as one "that makes Funcom more focused as a company". Funcom had previously declared their support for the Xbox, and we have to wonder whether abandoning Microsoft like this may have grave repercussions in the future. Funcom are as far as we're aware the first software company to change their mind about Xbox development. Generally speaking, Funcom's intentions must be to capitalize on the technology they developed for Anarchy Online as pres' Andre Backen claims. Realising a return on the enormous R&D investment is understandably going to be a higher priority than developing from scratch for a new console, which is what the PR says if you read between the lines. Microsoft isn't paying them to develop for Xbox, so they're consolidating projects. Simple as that.