Funcom’s The Secret World didn’t exactly set the sales registers on fire. In fact the game was kind of notorious for not living up to it’s hype, which would lead to a series of lay-offs. Lead designer Martin Bruusgaard was one of those lay-offs and he shares his thoughts on why the game didn’t succeed.
In conversation with Penny Arcade, Bruusgaard states, “Unfortunately I think that in order to be a success in today’s market, you need to make the game a bit more commercial. I think you have to consider what sells. You just have to. Not doing it is a huge risk. Yes, you might get lucky and everything works out great, but I would not do that again.”
Of course, having heavy-weights like Guild Wars 2 didn’t do any favours.
“I think it was a very difficult window to launch in, between Star Wars and Guild Wars and TERA. A lot of big MMOs out there. I think we also could’ve done a better job when it comes to marketing and making sure people know there is a game called The Secret World. I think too few people had heard of it, even though again, our numbers seemed like we were tracking really well.”
Source: GamesIndustryBiz