Funcom $6.3M Investment Secures ‘Conan: Exiles’ Future

Independent game developer and publisher Funcom received good news Thursday for itself and its upcoming open-world survival game Conan: Exiles. The company has struggled in recent years, but a private investment announcement combined with some debt management secured the company’s immediate future along with future titles and existing games such as The Secret World.

The company announced a $6.3 million USD private placement investment Thursday that helps bring the company back into the black. The other component to Funcom getting its financial situation in line includes a debt conversion process that reduced its debt by $7.7 million USD with no cash impact on the company. The result is the company’s equity has improved from being in a $10 million USD hole to a positive $4 million USD outlook that allows Funcom to develop new games and support existing titles.

“This investment is a major turning point for the company,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “Funcom has been making great games for more than twenty-three years, but it is no secret that the company has had a strained financial situation in recent years that made it challenging to fully realize our new strategy and get back on the right track. This investment allows us to finally do that.”

That new strategy for Funcom includes focusing on both small and large titles. The Park, a short horror game set in the Secret World universe, was recently released to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One following a PC release last year. This falls into the “smaller game” category and allowed the developer to become familiar with the current-gen console consoles.

The upcoming Conan: Exiles is the “large game” currently in development and planned to launch on PC this summer via Steam Early Access. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases will arrive later.

As previously covered by the Inquisitr, Conan: Exiles comes with all trappings of an open-world survival game. Players will be able to gather resources to build tools, weapon, and bases in a large open-world based on the harsh land of Hyboria from the Conan franchise.

Players will have the option to join multiplayer games on both public and private servers or can do it alone in a single-player mode. It’s not been announced yet if there will be PVE servers, but there is a definite PVP focus with players able to sacrifice enemies to the gods for added power.

We've been working on environmental lighting and the day/night cycle in #ConanExiles. Starting to take shape! pic.twitter.com/DnTaN4P3c1

— Conan Exiles (@ConanExiles) April 20, 2016

“You are an exile, one of thousands cast out to fend for themselves in a barbaric wasteland swept in sandstorms and besieged by enemies on every side. Grow crops or hunt animals for food. Harvest resources to build weapons and tools. Build a shelter to survive. Ride across a vast world and explore alone, or band together with other players to build entire settlements and fortified strongholds,” Funcom explained before getting into more brutal aspects of the game.

“Unleash your fury in savage, fast-paced combat and execute bloody and bone-crushing attacks that will see heads rolling and limbs flying. Fight other players to dominate the exiled lands, and even call upon the wrath of the heavens to aid you by sacrificing enemy players on the alters of the gods.”

Funcom is perhaps best known for the MMOs Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World. It also recently released The Park to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and has the LEGO Minifigures Online MMO available on PC since 2014. Unfortunately, the company has struggled since a 2012 executive shakeup and layoffs related to delays and poor reception of The Secret World. The company’s former CEO, Tronde Arne Aas, is currently facing charges of market manipulation and insider trading in Norway following his 2012 departure and the seizure of computers used by management, as reported by Games Industry.

The publisher has moved on since then and secured a partnership agreement with Conan Properties International LLC. This makes Funcom the developer when it comes to PC and console games based on the Conan the Barbarian brand. Exiles is the first entry based on the partnership, and there are two more unannounced games to be revealed later this year, according to an investor relations announcement.

What do think of Funcom securing its immediate future, the Early Access release of Conan: Exiles, and the continued support of its existing titles? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Funcom]