Funcom picks up funding

Two existing and one new investor have made a 4.5 million euro ($5.4 million) equity investment in the developer and publisher of Anarchy Online, Funcom NV.

The Oslo-based company has been creating games since the mid-90s (its first product was a PlayStation title named Casper), but Funcom's marquee title today is the MMORPG Anarchy Online, which was released in 2000 and is still "highly profitable." That title spawned two expansion packs, Notum Wars (released in 2003) and Shadowlands (released in 2003). A third expansion pack, Alien Invasion, is due later this year.

Funcom's CEO and President Trond Arne Aas says the funds will go toward new MMORPG development as well as the company's global sales and marketing efforts. "The financing …will enable us to further increase our investment in the development of the next generation of online games and to become even better at what we excel at," Aas said.