Secret World date a "misunderstanding"

Funcom's The Secret World MMO will not be released "in the next few months", Eurogamer can reveal.

Funcom said the claim, made by Canadian newspaper The Montreal Gazette, is a "misunderstanding".

"This must have been a misquote or a misunderstanding of some sorts," a Funcom spokesperson told Eurogamer. "We have never communicated a release date for The Secret World."

EA Partners signed publishing rights to The Secret World at the beginning of this year. But there was no release date announced, nor any indication of when the requisite beta test would be held. The Secret World hasn't even been confirmed as a 2011 title, on PC or Xbox 360.

Couple that with a marketing budget The Montreal Gazette reports to be "hundreds of millions", and it would have been a great surprise indeed to see The Secret World appear out of nowhere in "the next few months".

The Secret World hides a magical kingdom under a typical modern-day urban setting. What did Oli Welsh think when he saw The Secret World for Eurogamer last year?

"With its streamlined and flexible character development, promise of abundant loot and avatar-pimping options, slick presentation shorn of the typical MMO interface-creep, strong sense of atmosphere and place and character - and of course, with its clever splicing of down-to-earth contemporary setting with catch-all dark fantasy - The Secret World is already a very appealing MMO.