Stemming from recent rumours earlier this month, developer of the new modern MMO The Secret World has today confirmed that around half of the companies staff have been affected by several studio wide lay offs. Funcom insist that the job losses are mainly in relation to tuning down after post-launch of their recent MMO, and that they will be retaining as many as possible from the production teams.

Some of these initiatives are part of normal procedure following the launch of a major project, such as adjustments to the customer service staffing based on the number of customers in the game as well as adjustments to the production team as the project goes into a post-launch phase following years of intense development. Many of those affected on the customer service team are on temporary contracts which is common for a live service such as 'The Secret World' where customer service demand shifts based on the game's population levels.

The company also stresses that the loss of jobs are mainly, but not all, from temporary contracts. The process has affected offices of Montreal, Durham, Oslo and Beijing.