Earlier today, Funcom announced the establishment of their new subsidiary, SweetRobot. This new subsidiary will handle Funcom’s future ventures into the casual/social MMO-gaming markets.
“SweetRobot will be focusing on publishing games outside the traditional high-end MMO-segment which Funcom has been focusing on the last years,” said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas in a December 11 press release. “This will allow us to explore new market opportunities that differ from what we have been doing before while still retaining Funcom’s familiar profile. This definitely marks a new and exciting direction for us.”
SweetRobot’s first announced project is an MMO geared toward a younger demographic then some of Funcom’s other games. The game is titled Pets vs. Monsters and it will be marketed to children around the ages of 8 to 12. After a quick download, the player is logged in and up and running in no time. Accompanied by their pet, the player will get to have adventures through different worlds, have exciting battles, and will even have the option to chat and play with other gamers around the world. As with other role-playing games, the player will utilize statistics, equipment, and loot mechanics to progress through the game.
“Our passion and dedication for high-end online games remains the same, and Age of Conan and The Secret World are still our primary focus,” says Aas. “But we are also eager to explore new opportunities within the industry, and it felt natural for us to step into the social gaming segment especially considering our outstanding experience with making online worlds and communities. Pets vs. Monsters is very much an exciting project for us, our first attempt at creating an online game for a younger target audience with gameplay mechanics and production values that differ from what we have done before. The fact that these productions require significantly lower budgets and smaller teams to develop is very attractive to us, as it allows us to try out several concepts instead of placing all our resources into one single bet.”
While there isn’t a current release date for it, Pets vs. Monsters is expected to go into public beta testing later this month. For more information on the game, check out its official website.
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