In this post, I’ll be highlighting some of the recent announcements and news you might have missed. If you feel like there’s something missing, don’t hesitate to let me know!
Stay tuned until the end of the thread for a few questions on this year in games.
Interviews
Haslage Net has made two interviews and a sponsored video with Funcom. Here are the interviews:
Ten Questions with…
- Nicole Vayo, Community Manager at Funcom
- Thad Clevenger, Senior Environment Artist at Funcom
…about their experience in the video game industry as well as what led them onto that path.
Note: This is third-party video. Comments will very likely not get a reply by Funcom.
Who or what is Haslage Net?
Haslage Net Enterprises (HNE) was created in 1986, providing various landscaping services locally. In 1988, HNE switched to providing professional services and has continued to do so ever since. Since 1992, HNE has been evolving to incorporate various Internet-related services including social media, website and video gaming event management.(1)
Learn more about Haslage Net on the official site.
Plug: Interview with Lucas Josefsson (May 13, 2020)
Lucas Josefsson, Environment Artist at The Outsiders, talked with 80 Level about his personal project “Veturheim Ruins”.
Speeding up Game Logic in Unreal Engine - Unreal Fest Online 2020
Daniel Rätzer, Senior Engine Programmer at Funcom talks about game logic bottlenecks.
Showcases: Game tease when?
In June, Funcom and The Outsiders revealed Metal: Hellsinger, a rythmic FPS.
Did you miss the reveal? Click here to learn all about it!
This is an up-to-date schedule of events, all of which were delayed to show respect for Black Lives Matter.
What is Guerilla Collective?
An online digital games festival to reveal fresh announcements, trailers and reveals from some of the hottest publishers and developers around the world! The Guerrilla Collective is hosted by Greg Miller and produced by Media Indie Exchange (The MIX) with Kinda Funny Games Showcase.
Guerrilla Collective Live is part of GameSpot’s Play For All [celebration]. This multi-week event will celebrate gaming with announcements, interviews, previews, and more, and will raise funds for COVID-19 relief. There will be more than 100 hours of programming available during Play For All, and GameSpot is teaming up with our friends like Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann and NoClip’s Danny O’Dwyer.(2)
Next gen console support
Microsoft announced that over 140+ developers among others Funcom, The Outsiders and Games Farm are working on titles which will be available on the Xbox Series X, a next gen gaming console in development by Microsoft which is planned for release Holiday 2020.
Folding to combat disease
You may have heard of Folding at Home. If you haven’t, here’s a quick rundown:
In order to let researchers come up with a vaccin without having to spend time and money on it, people can donate their CPU and GPU processing power to fold proteins involved in deceases like COVID-19. Funcom has donated most, if not all of their computers in the office to the cause (in the past at least. I have not gotten a definitive answer if they are currently doing so yet).
You can read more about Folding@Home here.
Folding?
Folding refers to the way human protein folds in the cells that make up your body. We rely on the proteins to keep us healthy and they assemble themselves by folding. But when they misfold, there can be serious consequences to a person’s health.
Other news: Quarterly reports canceled
Edit (October 1, 2020): The Investor site (which covered news meant for investors) has been archived. There will likely be no further quarterly reports neither, as this would be logical with the full ownership by Tencent (the company is no longer publicly traded on the Oslo Bors). Quarterly reports which were to take place after full ownership were already marked as canceled on the site; except for -originally- the half-yearly report, which was later also marked as canceled.
Find useful information on the wiki.
What is your favorite game being teased for or in 2020 so far? Were you planning to attend a gaming convention? Would you like to see Funcom on more conventions and smaller events?