Funcom says MMO underperforms, negatively impacted by Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Pandaria release date news; company to focus on "smaller, more focused online games" in the future.

Funcom's new massively multiplayer online game The Secret World has not been the success the studio had hoped for. The company announced today as part of its latest financial report that it has sold 200,000 since launch in early July, a figure that is below the firm's expectations.

It's no secret, The Secret World has underperformed.

Funcom said the launch of The Secret World was not hampered by technical issues or difficulties, but rather reviews and news about competing games. The firm acknowledged that reviews for The Secret World were mixed, noting that the poor critiques "impacted sales of the game significantly."

Additionally, Funcom claimed NCsoft's announcement of an August 28 release date for Guild Wars 2 the week before The Secret World launch, as well as Blizzard announcing a September 25 release date for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, hurt sales of The Secret World.

Though sales figures for The Secret World may not be where Funcom wants them to be, the firm said it is planning to launch "several initiatives" to acquire additional players. These efforts were not specified.

Looking forward, Funcom said it will direct its resources toward "smaller, more focused online games." The company said these "systems-driven" games require less time and development cost to bring to market.

Lastly, Funcom acknowledged the company's current cost-cutting measures. The studio confirmed a reduction of total staff of about 50 percent, which was rumored last week.

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