Funcom's The Secret World has struggled since launch. Following poor sales the developer was forced to halve its studio staff, causing delays on updates (clearing up the mess left by halving a staff member, presumably) and internal reshuffles as people were promoted to fill empty positions. This hasn't convinced Funcom to follow the crowd and drop the game's subscription model.
Find out why after the break.
"We do have subscribers," Funcom's creative director Ragnar Tornquist told Eurogamer, "and those people are getting a lot of good content with their subscription, and they don't have to worry about having to micro-pay for everything. It is a benefit sometimes to have a subscription. But of course I understand the reticence of some people - a lot of people - to buy a game that comes with a monthly price tag. That makes complete sense."
According to Funcom's communications director, Erling Ellingsen, "it's not going free-to-play any time soon. There's currently no plans for making it free-to-play."
Re-affirming Elingsen's statement Tornquist said "Who knows what the business model will be like in a year? Or in two years or five years? But right now, yeah, the subscription model is [staying put]"
The piece is an excellent discussion on the virtues of subscription and free-to-play models and absolutely worth a read. Go read it.
Though to counter the above non-partisan action, also go read this.
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