People listen. That's great. But I realise that, every time I talk about
The Longest Journey, it's something that a lot of you pick up on, and react to, and mostly get upset about - simply because the news haven't been good. So I've decided to take a step back and explain what's happened with TLJ, what's currently happening with TLJ, and what will/might/won't happen with TLJ.
TLJ has sold more than 400,000 copies across the globe. That's pretty damn good. It means that well over one million people (!) have played the game - probably even more - and we actually made a decent profit. Amazingly enough. After all, adventures don't sell...do they? The game is still selling quite well, enough to stay on store shelves, but very soon it won't be - at least not in North America, where stock is running out, and where there won't be any more boxes. Why? Because it's too expensive to manufacture a 4-CD game, that's why. If it'd been on one CD - or DVDs had actually become a standard medium for PC software - there wouldn't be a problem. But the expense incurred by 4 CDs, a manual, and a nice box is simply too high for a small publisher like Funcom. In countries like Spain - where TLJ has been a huge success, and has been rereleased in a budget version - and the UK - where the game flopped (because of the horrible, horrible work by the local publisher), but was still released in a budget version - the game will remain on the shelves for the time being, until it sells out and the local publishers decide not to produce any more copies.
There's one thing I want to point out: everyone at Funcom loves TLJ. We're all proud of it, of the work we did and the success it's had. If it was purely an emotional decision, we'd start working on the sequel tomorrow. Problem is, Funcom is a business. It has to make money, because otherwise there won't be a Funcom, lots of people will be out of a job, and you can just wave bye-bye to any possibility of a sequel...ever. Right now, Funcom is very dependent on
Anarchy Online to make a profit. And Funcom also wants to focus on the online market, because that's our niche now, that's where we can excel and make great games and get enough cash to make more online games...and so on. Keeping the wheel turning, as it were. Hopefully, Funcom will stay around for a long, long time.
So if it was an emotional decision, if it was solely based on what we'd love to do, we'd put together a team and make TLJ2. Honest.
Why isn't that going to happen? It might. At some point in the future, it might. I can't know for sure. I just know that it won't happen in the next 2 years. After that, it all depends on how well Funcom has done with AO and other games, how much interest there is in a TLJ sequel, and how we'd be able to make money from it. That last point sounds heartless and greedy, I know, but the fact is we're working in a commercial industry, and if we don't make money from our games, we'll go bust. TLJ - the first one - was a labour of love, but it was also an investment. We wouldn't have done it if we hadn't thought it'd be a success. I always believed it would sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and I was right. So it's not just an artistic decision, or a decision based on what we'd love to do - we'd have to be pretty sure that it would sell enough to justify the development cost.
There's another factor to this as well. A sequel to TLJ is pretty dependent on my involvement. Not because I'm irreplacable, but because I'm the only one who knows the story - or the stories (there are a bunch of 'em). And everyone knows that the story is critical to TLJ. So if I'm working at the local supermarket in 2 years, I can pretty much guarantee you that you won't be seeing April again. On the other hand, if I - through pure luck - can put together another game which becomes a big success and gets glowing reviews, then I'll be in a better place to suggest that maybe, just maybe, we should make that sequel (or prequel) to TLJ.
So there's still a chance. There's always hope. Don't hold your breath, because I guarantee you that you'll suffocate, but don't stop hoping, wishing, and talking about it. Because if no one remembers TLJ 2 or 3 years from now, there won't be any point to a sequel. There really won't be.
I'm still trying to come up with alternative solutions, if that's any comfort. I can't tell you exactly what that is, but I did make a promise when the game was released that the story would continue, eventually. It will. I won't leave you all hanging forever, promise. But I can't promise another adventure-game. I don't have five million dollars on my bank-account right now. But stick with me. Inbetween everything else, TLJ is on my mind, and I won't abandon it.
