EA is the "best partner we can have" said Funcom. They're leaving all marketing duties to them, while Funcom stick to the MMO's continued development.
"We're really known for the quality of our games," said Funcom Canada CEO Miguel Caron. "Commercially, we haven't seen the correlation of that quality." That would be referring to Age of Conan which got many rewards but tanked commercially.
Funcom now have The Secret World and apparently it’s not too long before it launches. "Due out in the next few months, The Secret World is a AAA game produced on a large budget over four years in Funcom's Montreal studio," reports the Montreal Gazette.
"They're the best partner we can have to market this game," Caron said. "EA knows a lot more about marketing than we do, and they're a lot better at it than we are. This way, we can just focus on creating the best possible game." EA has invested a lot.
The Montreal Gazette report they've sunk "hundreds of millions into promotion and distribution," and will take home a percentage of total sales. Hundreds of millions? Unless EA wrote off Funcom's development costs that seems unlikely.
Are you looking forward to The Secret World MMO, videogamer?