Funcom Announces Long Awaited Sequel To ‘Dreamfall: The Longest Journey’

Fans of Ragnar Tornquist’s outstanding computer games, The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, are rejoicing over the announcement that a long awaited sequel is finally becoming reality. Today, Funcom announced the start of pre-production for Dreamfall Chapters.

The new title will be created by Ragnar’s game design studio, Red Thread Games. The hard working creator of Funcom’s futuristic MMORPG, The Secret World, turned the day to day responsibility for the groundbreaking online game over to the extremely capable hands of Joe Bylos and licensed the rights to Dreamfall Chapters for his new company. Ragnar will remain Creative Director for The Secret World while he puts together the team to research and develop Dreamfall Chapters.

Red Thread Games will privately fundDreamfall Chapters, and the title will be marketed by Funcom. Mr. Tornquist entered into a revenue sharing agreement with Funcom, who own the intellectual property rights to the original games. Due to Funcom’s focus on the online gaming market, the company felt it was in their best interest to license the rights back to Mr. Tornquist and allow him to create the new game as an independent developer.

Dreamfall Chapters begins pre-production six long years after the last game in the series; Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The Norwegian Film Fund has awarded Funcom a grant which will partially finance research and initial development of the new title.

Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom, spoke about the Norwegian government’s involvement in the project:

“We will be researching an online-only continuation of the epic ‘Longest Journey’ saga, and we very much look forward to develop new chapters to the Dreamfall gaming community. To see the Norwegian government take such an active role in nurturing the local game development industry is impressive. In return for their trust we aim to deliver a modern adventure game with unique qualities.”

Ragnar Tornquist is the creator of several award winning computer games and online games including The Longest Journey, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Anarchy Online, and The Secret World. Ragnar revealed how pleased he is to finally begin work on the sequel to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey:

“I’m very excited to finally have the opportunity to continue the ‘The Longest Journey’ saga. Ever since we ended ‘Dreamfall’ on a nail-biting cliffhanger, players have been rightfully demanding a sequel, and my deal with Funcom will finally make that possible. I’m extremely grateful to Funcom for this unique and exciting opportunity, and I can’t wait to dive back into the universe I helped create more than a decade ago, and continue the story players have been waiting for these past six years.”