Pets vs Monsters

Julie and Fran of the No Prisoners, No Mercy podcast had some special guests on their most recent show, to the delight of the Funcom fans in their audience.

Funcom Community Managers Glen "Famine" Swan and Oliver Kunz visited the podcast to discuss The Secret World as well as Rise of the Godslayer, the upcoming expansion for Age of Conan. The duo talked about their responsibilities within Funcom, and gave some details about what they're working on these days.

Rise of the Godslayer, of course, is the big project. With five new regions, a new race, twelve new factions, and all the bells and whistles that go with them, Swan promised that the expansion won't disappoint fans. They also gave an overview of The Secret World as well as their other upcoming project, Pets vs. Monsters.

It sounds like a good time was had by all -- the podcast is fun and informative, and definitely worth listening to. For even more information, keep an eye out for our interview with Ragnar Tornquist at GDC later this week as well!

Back in December, we talked a bit about Funcom's new studio SweetRobot, which will be designing games for a much younger market than the Age of Conan crowd. Pets vs. Monsters is the first offering from the studio, with the promise of more to come. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas took some time to sit down with gameindustry.biz and discuss where the company stands now, and how that has influenced their decision to explore this new opportunity.

Of course, Funcom had to employ some cost-cutting measures in 2009: "...it's become almost a default thing for businesses in the last year it seems." Tapping into the vast tween market could be a very lucrative move in the face of those measures -- while their cash reserves are more than comfortable, gaining new subscribers is the way to keep the company moving forward.

Make no mistake - the grownup side of Funcom isn't going anywhere. Age of Conan is here to stay and The Secret World is still coming, but Funcom is also giving plenty of attention to their more casual new studio as well. The full interview can be read here.

When most parents think of children's MMOs, nobody would likely think of a studio like Funcom. After all, Funcom is the company that brought us Age of Conan, an MMO rife with boobs, blood, and beheading. Quite possibly the absolute last place you'd let your kiddies romp around, really. That's undoubtedly why they decided to spin off a new studio called SweetRobot as they start up their newest MMO offering aimed at the 8-12 year old crowd: Pets vs. Monsters! Slated to be a free to play game, Pets vs. Monsters has apparently been under development for two years and will enter public beta this month. Now how's that for a holiday surprise!

According to Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas, "SweetRobot will be focusing on publishing games outside the traditional high-end MMO-segment which Funcom has been focusing on the last years. This will allow us to explore new market opportunities that differ from what we have been doing before while still retaining Funcom's familiar profile. This definitely marks a new and exciting direction for us." It is, however, a highly competitive market, so time will tell if this newest outing will take off for them. If you're curious to see a bit more of Pets vs. Monsters, then be sure to check out the gallery of screenshots and concept art below, or better yet, have a look at the game-play video for an early peek!

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