Revealed by Norwegian newspaper E24 and later translated by Adventure Gamers, Norwegian developer/publisher Funcom has announced that it will drop all offline PC games, citing piracy as the main reasoning behind the move. According to Funcom’s Trond Arne Aas, there have been over 200,000 illegal downloads of Dreamfall, Funcom’s 2006 adventure/action sequel, with most of those downloads occurring before the game’s release. Arne Aas also stated that for every PC game that is sold, between 3 and 10 times as many are stolen.
It’s unclear if Funcom is totally abandoning the offline persona or if it will continue developing offline games but require an online system to login and authenticate–like Steam, minus its offline system. Another translation could be that Funcom will stop selling its games at retail and will focus on digital distribution. It’s unlikely, though, that the 200,000 illegal downloads of Dreamfall would have all translated into sales of the game. While it is certainly implied, words may have been lost in the translation.
Like so much else in this story, it’s unknown how this new plan will affect Dreamfall Chapters, the episodic continuation of The Longest Journey adventure series or the planned MMO based on the series. Provided that both were announced prior to this, and that both would likely be distributed online in some form, it’s safe to assume that both will continue on as scheduled. Funcom is no stranger to the online genre, as it currently has the MMORPG Anarchy Online running along with two other upcoming MMORPGs; The World Online and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. While this story has raised more questions than anything, we’ll certainly be watching for further developments with a close eye.
