Funcom: Interviews, showcases and next gen console support - May 2020 (Updated December 17, 2020)

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.

https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1258434542639046656

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?

7 Likes

It would be amazing if Funcom upgraded to Unreal 4.25+, with Smart Delivery to update Conan for PS5 and XBOX Series X.

Xbox Series X Smart Delivery: Everything we know

Automatically take your favorite games from Xbox One to Xbox Series X with Smart Delivery.

1 Like

Unreal Engine 5 Revealed! | Next-Gen Real-Time Demo Running on PlayStation 5

4 Likes

Omg i was nailed in the screen, omg. From 45 to 15 for 5 min , thank you for this i own you one

1 Like

UE5 looks breath taking. Can’t wait to get my hands on it, assuming they won’t change the marketing model.
I’m also wondering if Funcom is considering UE5 for future projects.

Maybe the new map DLC at the end of the year??? Wishful I know.

UE5 will release somewhere around mid-2021, and that only if there are no delays. So, I don’t think so.
But, considering how succesfull Conan Exiles is, maybe, there will be a Conan Exiles 2 with this engine starts dreaming with opened eyes.

2 Likes

Also wouldn’t happen because I’m pretty sure you can’t make a DLC for a game that runs on one engine run on another one. At that point you’re just making an entire new game.

1 Like

Edit: Please note that current schedules may be out of date due to delays associated with the Black Lives Matter response. Check the updates below; for Funcom events, the main post in this thread contains an updated schedule.

3 Likes

Conan Chop Chop’s trophies were leaked on PlayStation. They’re now available on the wiki:

A twitter user says there are at least 3 or 4 teased location names for Conan Exiles’ map expansion DLC out there. We have 2 so far.

Please make a screenshot if you find them!

You can send them in this thread since the other was automaticly closed after 7 days.

2 Likes

Conan Exiles now supports Remote Play on Tablet!

Conan Exiles can now be played on tablets using Steam Remote Play. This is also possible using NVIDIA GeForce Now.


See also this wiki page for other features.

4 Likes

Funcom has teamed up with numerous developers on Guerrilla Collective Live, a games festival taking place June 6 - 8 on Twitch and Steam.

The Outsiders announced in April that they would halt development of their previous project, Darkborn (formerly Project Wight and Archenemy), and are working on a new, different game. This is the unannounced, external game which is being published by Funcom. They hope to share more details “very very soon”.

Update (May 26, 2020): Funcom is teasing a game reveal on Twitter. :eyes: The IGN Expo schedule, linked in the tweet, confirms this.

Update May 27, 2020

This thread is now updated with a game reveal date and IGN Expo schedule!

More may follow with the Guerilla Collective event. Stay tuned.

Update May 28, 2020
No important information. Added

  • a plug to an interview
  • a note about cancelation of two of the quarterly reports.

https://twitter.com/locust9/status/1266261476752277506

image
lol guys, sorry, it’s our game he’s referring to ))

And your game is?

patience ))

Update May 29, 2020
Added David Goldfarb’s twitter thread.

Today is Nicole’s interview, check the first post^

PC Gaming Show 2020
Funcom will also be on the PC Gaming Show 2020 this year, where they previously showcased Conan Unconquered and Conan Chop Chop. Like last year, they are also one of the event’s sponsors.

Update June 2, 2020

IGN’s Summer of Gaming main events have been delayed to June 8.
An updated schedule for all events can be found in the main post of this thread ^

Imo they should put out a new schedule later today or this week.

Update June 4, 2020

The PC Gaming Show, which was planned for June 6th, has been delayed to June 13th.
An updated schedule for all events can be found in the main post of this thread ^

Update June 5, 2020

The Guerilla Collective, which was planned for June 6 - 8, has been delayed to June 13 - 15.
An updated schedule for all events can be found in the main post of this thread ^

Other news
The Outsiders are donating 100 usd per employee to a Black Lives Matter charity site;

Update June 6, 2020

Funcom has clarified the new showcase dates on Twitter.
An updated schedule for all events can be found in the main post of this thread ^

SPOILER ALERT
If you do not want to know how they filmed the Mandalorian, you will not want to watch this. It is related to this post.

If you have Disney+, you will be very interested in watching the Technology episode in the Disney Gallery.

1 Like

Knowing the ability of RTG, the demos only show single or trivial reflections of light. I highly doubt RTG will be limited to a range of functionality, in time, due to locked in light calculations. Once the hardware does multiple reflections per ray, then it will look much more interesting than cheap-o-triangle-mesh and occlusion rendering.

Realistically speaking Funcom has a long way to go to be classified as a good game designer. They can’t even make updates without breaking the game. The new consoles have much more technology than Funcom has ideas of how to incorporate fixes. They are at PS3 technology atm imo.

1 Like