Funcom launches kids' online games subsidiary, SweetRobot

In a major shift in strategy, hardcore online game publisher Funcom is announcing today a new subsidiary to make casual online games.

The Norwegian game publisher is best known for its Anarchy Online and Age of Conan massively multiplayer online games, which are virtual worlds for hardcore gamers. But the company’s new SweetRobot subsidiary is making a casual MMO, meant to be played in short bursts of time. It’s called Pets vs. Monsters and it will go into public beta testing later this month. The game is aimed at kids ages eight to 12.

Pets vs. Monsters takes a short time to download and lets players start playing quickly in a variety of worlds, from deserts to jungles, where they can take pets into battles with monsters.

The shift reflects the changing video game market, which is increasingly reaching broader demographics beyond the hardcore players. SweetRobot will be publishing games outside the traditional high-end, hardcore MMO games that Funcom has focused on, says Funcom chief executive Trond Arne Aas. It’s no secret that hardcore games are struggling during the recession, while social games on platforms such as Facebook are taking off.

A team of 15 people has been working on Pets vs. Monsters for almost two years. They’re creating a highly flexible game engine, or platform, that can be used with multiple games. Pets vs. Monsters is just the first of these. Funcom itself will continue to focus on MMOs such as Age of Conan and other hardcore games.

Funcom will use the SweetRobot subsidiary to experiment with different concepts, gameplay mechanisms and business models. Casual games require significantly lower budgets and teams, Aas said. The company can thus diversify its investments across multiple titles.

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