Interview with Gaute Godager

[Mustaine]

Sounds like they were kids with a dream with crusty investors who left it up to the 4 or 5 of them to figure it out ... I can't imagine the excitement coupled with the terror of never running a business or having been a part of a real dev-team; making it up as you go. It all sounds like sky diving ... lol.

It sounds like FUNCOM never really had/has a stable structure; very fluid and kinda messy. Ironically ~ I saw a documentary on the LEGO company and how they were in a similar situation back in the day (just on a bigger scale).

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[AngryBarb]

Very nice intersting read.

It explains a lot about how Funcom just keeps going no matter what. So basically a Norwegian Oil Baron is keeping Funcom and their games alive because to him it's like a cool hobby like thing to own a gaming company.

Well i guess AOC will keep running as long as Funcom has the license and people can enjoy it as it is atm, but other than that not much is going to change. Oh well, it is what it is

Nice to finally know the truth behind the scenes so to speak.

[AngryBarb]

Part 2 is up!

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cf...er-Part-2.html

[Mysticblood]

My interpretation of the interview may have been a little more positive than most people would take from it. On one hand you have a company that has never made money and not enough capital for a bigger company like "EA" to be interested in it. (Who really wants a huge publisher who doesn't care as much as the smaller guys anyway?) But on the other hand they've managed to stay around for 15-some years, and it sounds like their investor is willing to throw enough into the company to keep it them from going under. It's a two-edged sword meaning they won't be able to borrow to make another game as big as AoC and TSW, but things can turn around with a proper shift in their business plan. It's time they take their head out of the rabbit hole (where's it's been for five years) and realize they have already made two of the best MMOs currently on the market and try and make them successful. The CEO already admitted in an interview a couple of years ago that their business plan was to focus on small, short term games with a two-year development cycle, and have proven they can't do it because they failed time and time again with promoting their products. So a frequent release of smaller games doesn't make much sense when it's clear they don't know how to sell them. Funcom is widely known for Age of Conan, plain and simple. Gaute inferred this when he said FUNCOM is like a national treasure over there. If they want to be as successful as Blizzard it's time they focus their assets on what they are known for. Time to take that creativity and good ideas that Funcom is known for and milk it instead of turn their heads.

Just my .02 cents =P


P.S. Part two of the interview is incredibly insightful and I love what Gaute did for AoC even more

[Belsvard]

"one of the biggest flaws I've seen in founders is that they become hooked on investor thinking. Instead of thinking about how to make a good product, something interesting, or something you can love to make, they ask, "When is my exit? When is the next round of financing? What's the price of my shares today?""


Sadly, this is true.
this inteviews answer many things that we players were wondering... now i can rest my mind about it...

is sad to see this game in its current state, but is still my favourite game, there are no other like AoC. FC is well known to me as an innovative developer, i respect that.