The Secret World sells 200,000

game in Russia in general neidet, which is very bad, that means the game is bad!

? ?????? ??????????+????????????????? (?????? ??????? ??????????) Vary BAD !!!!!

Wow, really? Blaming it on GW2/WoW? Metacritic? No one is buying that crap, if anything it just makes the company look worse for being either unwilling to admit to misteps or being completely oblivious to what for everyone else is plain and simple; the game isn't good enough. The combat is floaty, the animations are awkward, the graphics are mediocre, the quests are redundant and the skill system is limited and uninteresting. TSW has two amazing elements going for it, one being the main storyline (which is great and well-done) and the other being the investigative missions. Unfortunately, both of those elements encompass maybe 20-30% of the game, where the rest of it is the same boring MMO tripe wrapped in a dysfunctional battle system. I can't imagine why no one wants to play it.

The game is a mixed bag, mostly because it tries to achieve more than it can handle.

The main drawback in my opinion is the fact they went MMO (with monthly fee) on this, when single player (maybe adding coop play)  could have worked much better.

I managed to get through the game 3 days before my 30 days from buying the game ran out. It was fun and I did enjoy it but once I finished the main story line, I was not really motivated to keep playing. Great game but there is no incentive to grind out a set of QL10 purples and the PvP was mediocre at best. Might come back if/when they add more story line stuff. That's really where the game shines.

Did it ever occur to them that people were just not interested in the premise of their game?  Or that they simply did not communicate the 'fun' of thier game to potential customers effectively?  Nice way to pass the buck Funcom.

about all these comment about subscription based games just make me thinks are they that cheap (exclude people on tight budget) or just looking for a reason to bash the game.

i have no problem with subscription based games. if you like the game then its worth it, just like what you would spend on for your other entertainment cuz  you know you will enjoy it. if not, then i dont understand why you would wait til its f2p and waste your time on it when you can play something better.

try the game out first before you pay.

for TSW though, and i am a lifetime sub here but quitting to focus on gw2, i would say its not worth the money that you have to pay (base game + sub or lifetime sub) due to lack of content.

if you just want to buy the game which obviously of course include a 1 month play time, just to experience the story, you better off spend the money on a single player game with a decent story.

I also think one of major thing that possibly turn people away is that they have a cashshop.  even though its fully cosmetic items, i think its still wrong to have it on a sub-base game.  if you gonna have a cashshop, only implement it in a f2p game or b2p like guild wars imo.

I thought the concept was interesting...but the overall final release look at it, was just lacking in almost every aspect for me. Graphics, gameplay, UI, renders...just didnt enthrall me. Just expected more of the 'mystery' or 'secret' to the Secret World....rather than bland generic settings, characters, effects, etc. Maybe it works for some of you, and glad it does...but just better gameplay draws out there. The monthly subscription...was just lunacy being such an offset concept too, sucks it is often those unique concept games get lost or suffer by the other onslaught of copies out there...but it just lacked in too many areas for such a promising concept. Didn't deliver.

From the reviews, this games sounded really fun... if it had been a single player console game instead of an MMORPG.  Oddly enough, there are still folks who would rather play single-player games at home on the sofa with a loved one rather than at a desk in a dark room with remote strangers.

you make a niche game, follow  a subscription model that is dead and launch a month before guild wars 2 and a WoW expansion and then are disappointed things arent going well ? 

secret world is a good game. i encourage everyone to try it when it goes F2P because id love to see more content for it. 

Release the game on a console. Problem solved.

i thought it looked like an awesome game.the story and concept was tight but judging by the game in its self i wasn't the least impressed!it backfired now see the consequence!

A shame, I really enjoyed the universe behind this game. Sure it was strange but it was at least a little different then the usual elves, orcs, and magic that your find in RPGs today. I would not mind a single player RPG based in this universe to be honest.

It was... strange....

It looked interesting but I never saw much press about it. Plus I've been on Guild Wars.

It's a real pity about this.  It had so much potential and I really wanted it to succeed, but you could tell from the early betas that even though some ideas were amazing, it just didn't have enough to help it survive.  I can't even see making it free to play being able to save it.

What a lame excuse! The game was released a month and half before GW2 and now that its released, they go all "its because of GW2". Here's my criticism, the game mechanics were very confusing, the bugs & glitches were annoying plus a monthly subscriptions. You would think I will be playing this for more than a month, think again.

Is anyone at all surprised along with the Funcom execs? 

Someone needs to get their head out of the clouds I'd say.

This game failed because it was terrible. It had great ideas and alright implementation but the gameplay was horrendous.

Mess around with Occult symbolism and look what you get....

lol at all these people talking about F2P..F2P is not the future it is a sign of failure when a game goes F2P and a sign of success when it remains with subscriptions.. look at Rift..still following the good old tried and true monthly subscriptions and even launching a paid expansion in the coming months. F2P games have a negative stigma like all those trashy Nexxon games Perfect world, and Mabinogi. dont bother to mention Gw2,its not a true MMO it is an instanced arena game more like an FPS with an MMO skin, there wont be regular raids or content added with each patch but rather every few months there will be an expansion pack that costs $29.99 or something along those lines.

"Looking forward, Funcom said it will direct its resources toward "smaller, more focused online games."

Here is an idea, how about focusing on a 3rd Longest Journey game and tying up the series before making more MMOs?

if this didnt have a sub-fee I would play it along together with GW2. They wanted  50Euros/dollars and a sub fee of 15 on top of that. In a year I would have to pay for the game 4 times!! I could buy 3 more games by not paying the sub!

They shouldnt blame others for their failure. if a 14 years old kid can tell that the graphics and the animations look dated then for sure a professional game developer could see it too. If a random MMO gamer knows that new sub based games fail in 6 months, I would expect that a company that wants to release an MMO knows it too. If even the most hardcore WoW player knows that guild wars is to be released sometime in summer of 2012 and its subfree then a professional marketing manager should have predicted it too.

TSW failed because almost no one even fucking knew it existing. Bad marketing.

Also, subscription MMO nowadays? Even TOR is going F2P. That leaves what, WoW and Rift?

Funcom mistook insanity for innovation. Trying to enrich a MMO with well-crafted single player quests (ignoring bugs and the occasional failures) is like putting Caviar on an Angus steak burger. Both are great on their own, but no one in his right mind would think to put the two together. The problem is exacerbated because in trying to prepare the Caviar just right, Funcom completely burned the steak. Namely, although the SP in TSW is great, the MP was actually a little sad at launch, defeating the purpose of MMO. That's the lesson Funcom needs to learn: innovate because it's better not because it's different. Competition is not the biggest issue. In fact, I don't think it's an accident that GW2 and MoP are coming so close together.

all this subscription nonsense died out with 90s

I've never paid subscription fees for any game I've ever played. That feels so good to say. I'm glad that companies are realizing that this isn't a feasible model anymore and with free alternatives, they can't possibly expect the game to thrive. If people want to go out of their way to pay more for a game than the initial purchase, that's their option, but I'm glad that I've stuck by my conviction to not do so. I love games, but in a world where there are thousands of options, why would I pay more than I have to for something that makes me happy for so much less?

Due to pressure from GW2 and WoW's expansion, we decided to counter them with a kid-friendly LEGO MMO. This game will no doubt help the company back on track and be on par with those 2 soon.

GW2 FTW!

BAHAHAhaha.. Sales affected by GW2 LMFAO. More like sales affected by the game blowing large chunks. If you can be bothered read back on my last few posts on this game. Predicted the tank and also predicted Funcom would blame the sun reflecting off venus before they een attempt any sort of self assessment on why they simply will not listen to fans during Beta testing and fix things that are screwed.... like the whole combat system for example. Yet another Ragnor Torquist failure and I bet he still believes hes right about everything. Must be John Romeros love child. Looking forward to the "servers closing down" story in 6 months.

how about focusing on 'one' game to be the moneymaker ? if blizzard can do it ... does that mean they got all the google-class devs in their pocketses then? Funcom doesnt really seem to have a lot of luck, but i dont know if luck is really the defining factor you want. I suppose secret world aint f2p ? aoc was after a while, most games do after a while, so maybe a lot of people just wait it out since the market is what you would call saturated in terms of noise and imagery. Add a bit of crisis sauce and you can have all the narcisses you want, that wont mean you're gonna sell.

DROP THE SUBSCRIPTION ...why do you think world of tanks is so successful? I was really looking forward to this game until i heard about paying $15 pm after buying the game . Dont give me that "servers costs money to run stuff". Either F2P with a subscription or buy the game without subscription, you can't have both you greedy clowns .

DROP THE SUBSCRIPTION ...why do you think world of tanks is so successful? I was really looking forward to this game until i heard about paying $15 pm after buying the game .

Dont give me that "servers costs money to run stuff".

Either F2P with a subscription or  buy the game without subscription, you can't have both you greedy clowns .

they could get Many more players if it was free to play, and if the had fixed combat system.

I would play it if it was single player.  This is what you get from greedy MMOs. Who do they think they are charging high subs, when a game like GW2 is free?

I was wondering how TSW was doing after the gate opened.

If there ever was an MMO I'd play...this is it. 

*kicks internet-connection*

I bought my copy in support of Funcom, in-that hopefully they get back to single player adventures.  Kind of a bitter-sweet article.

Sadly I don't think this is a surprise to anybody.

That is a shame, it seems an interesting game and ilike the style and vibe of it, but i am not a pc gamer so my money is lost on them.