Funcom's Secret World Relaunch Is Actually A Different Game

When Funcom first began talking about relaunching its occult-themed MMO The Secret World in February, most of us assumed it would consist of some general upgrades -- maybe tweaks to combat and graphic upgrades, and the free-to-play conversion. As it turns out, it's a bit more than that.

Today, the developer revealed the new Secret World Legends. Along with the announcement came the launch of the new-ish game's beta and a name change on the TSW social networks. It also came with a lot of questions from players.

As it turns out, the new game is apparently different enough in format that Funcom is electing to refer to it as an action RPG rather than an MMO. The core gameplay has been reimagined to make it feel more natural and intuitive. It's also designed differently enough that any current TSW players will need to start from the beginning, like everyone else. There won't be any of that transferring your current character stuff -- although players can transfer the name and certain items from a single character in their roster. Grand Master players will also be able to carry over their lifetime sub.

The downside to all of this is that Funcom will no longer be creating new content for The Secret World. The content that is there will remain, but all future episodes will only be available in Secret World Legends. This means that veteran players who want to continue their story will have to move to the new game. To make sure this was the case, MMOBomb reached out to Funcom and was told by Game Director Romain Amiel:

Future content will be for Secret World Legends, but we will keep the classic servers running.

All future story content and quest content will be free. One of the main reasons we are relaunching is to enable us to release the rest of the story content for Secret World Legends. We will be releasing the first part of Season 2 later this year.

To get more information on how this change will impact veteran players, as well as benefit new ones, we're currently working on an interview with Funcom. Be sure to check back for it later today.