14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Funcom believes that, regardless of the means, gamers need to pay in order to get access to a MMO experience with solid mechanics and long-term plans for content.
Ragnar Tornquist, who is the creative director and senior producer at Funcom, has told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that, “We have content plans for a very long time. We have content that’s going to be coming on a regular, ongoing basis. We have content that’s going to come out pretty soon. It is the only business model that makes sense in terms of giving players this living, breathing world and this constantly upgraded, expanded experience.”
The executive does not know whether The Secret World will be free-to-play in five or ten years time, but he says that at the moment the only way to support such an ambitious project is by asking gamers to pay a monthly subscription.
He also talked about Age of Conan and says that the MMO “has taught us a lot. Five years from now, ten years from now, will Secret World be free-to-play? I’m sure of it. But that’s a long time. For the time being, we’re committed to this business model, and as long as people are willing to pay us in order to provide them with expanded content and ongoing content, we’ll keep that business model.”
The Secret World is an ambitious project for the MMO space, because it does not use classes and allows players to specialize in any kind of skill they are interested in.
The game revolves around three secret societies and their fight against mythic beasts that threaten humanity and is heavily based on mystery and complex puzzles.
The Secret World was launched earlier in the week and Funcom is already working on a new project, a LEGO-based MMO that will be launched in 2013.