Last month, we reported that Funcom was instituting "temporary layoffs" of a significant number of its staff. Recently, The Secret World's lead designer, Martin Bruusgaard, told Develop that he was among those laid off along with "most" of the studio.
The Norwegian studio, whose last two major projects were the big budget MMORPGs Age of Conan and The Secret World, is now looking to focus more on smaller projects, skirting around the currently treacherous magma pit that is the subscription MMO market. Bruusgaard described his situation in a tweet as being "put on forced leave, along with most of our Oslo office." Develop claims that this leave has affected at least 50 percent of Funcom's staff.
It's unclear whether these "temporary" measures are really temporary, or if Funcom intends to develop another big budget game on the PC.
