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The Secret World Developer Raided
Update: After our story on the raiding of Funcom yesterday, we were contacted today through email by a representative of Funcom with an update on the events of the raid from the Norwegian authorities, as well as details from the studio about how these events will affect ongoing games like The Secret World. We're providing the company's comment in full below.
"Yesterday, the company received a visit from Økokrim (the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime) who is conducting an investigation on the suspicion of infringement of the provisions of the Securities Trading Act with regards to financial information given to the market surrounding the launch of The Secret World. Funcom is of course fully cooperating with Økokrim and the company is providing them with all necessary information to make sure the situation can be clarified and resolved as soon as possible.
Production on all Funcom games continues as normal, and the company remains fully committed to games in development as well as the continued operation and updating of existing live games. Yesterday's events is not expected to have any impact on the company's continued operation or the development on future releases. Funcom's key priorities are the development of the upcoming LEGO® Minifigures Online, as well as supporting and expanding on the live games Age of Conan, The Secret World and Anarchy Online with new and exciting content. In terms of The Secret World, developers are currently in the process of finalizing its ninth content update, which will send players on a grand adventure through Tokyo, and Funcom will be releasing new information and screenshots from this update soon.
Please also note that trading in the company stock was only suspended temporarily yesterday, and trading was back to normal shortly thereafter. We were also happy to see that the way we handled the communication to the market after the events was well received, and the stock climbed throughout today."
Original Story:
Funcom, developers of MMO The Secret World, are being investigated by Norway's economic crime unit Okokrim for suspected lapses in Funcom's financial reporting.
Okokrim officers seized documents from the company to investigate charges that Funcom didn't keep the required records for the period starting in August 2011 through the two months after the release of The Secret World in July of 2012.
In a statement Funcom said it was cooperating with the investigation.
The company is currently working on Lego Minifigures Online.
[Source: Newsweb, e24 via Joystiq]
Our Take
It's unknown at this time what kinds of fines or penalties could be levied, but given Funcom's restructuring in 2013, hopefully this isn't a death blow.
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