In the realm of adventure gaming Funcom has become synonymous with sweet goodness in recent years, much in the same way that EA has become synonymous with sucking the blood from the necks of children, but it looks like they’re taking some drastic steps to protect their delicious nectar from scurvy pirates (much in the same way that children take drastic steps to protect their precious lifeblood from vampires). Adventure Gamers hasa reportbased ona piecewritten by a Norwegian newspaper that claims Funcom is giving up on the offline world of adventure games. Apparently they have been so hard-hit by the widespread piracy brought on by the advent of broadband, that making online games is the only way for them to guarantee that they are only entertaining those who shelled out hard-earned cash for their product.
It’s a shame that a game company with so much talent is being forced to do things they wouldn’t otherwise due to market forces outside of their control, but, in the end, piracy is the new, inevitable event horizon surrounding an industry subsisting on a platform designed specifically for digital propogation of information. The true test of all of these corporations is going to be in how they react to this shift in the market, and those who survive will truly be companies that you can take home to mother.
