Funcom cuts back

Norwegian game company Funcom has announced that it has made additional cutbacks in its staff and is reorganizing its marketing and support departments. The staff reductions will not affect the ongoing development of Anarchy Online, the company's massively multiplayer sci-fi role-playing game, or the upcoming Shadowlands expansion pack. All planned patches and additions to the game are still on schedule.

Funcom made a similar round of staff reductions in December when it suspended the development of Midgard, an online role-playing game set in a medieval fantasy world. The company plans to rehire staff members as soon as certain business goals are reached. Subscription numbers for Anarchy Online have been climbing since the beginning of the year, and Funcom expects this trend to continue. Specific subscriber numbers were not released, and Funcom representatives were not available for comment at press time.

Anarchy Online was released in June 2001. The game lets players assume the role of a character in the midst of a war on a remote planet 30,000 years into the future. For more information, take a look at our extensive coverage of the game.