MASSIVE FINAL BETA WEEKEND FOR 'THE SECRET WORLD' STARTS JUNE 22

6/19/2012 11:32 AM EST

'The Secret World', the highly anticipated modern-day 
massively multiplayer online game of myths, legends 
and conspiracies, draws ever closer to its July 3rd 
release date. In preparation for launch, Funcom is 
excited to announce that the fourth and final Beta 
Weekend - titled 'The Battle Begins' - will be made 
open to all of the more than 1.3 million gamers who 
have signed up to beta test 'The Secret World'. 
Guaranteed access to the final Beta Weekend will also 
be given to everyone registering via the game's 
official website by June 22nd (use the beta sign-up 
form on the right side of the page). 

'The Secret World Beta Weekend #4: The Battle Begins' 
starts at 9am PDT on June 22nd and runs for almost 
three entire days until 11.59pm PDT on June 24th. 
During that time players will be able to experience 
all the content that has been included in the three 
previous Beta Weekends, such as all three secret 
society starter experiences, the town of Kingsmouth, 
the Savage Coast and the Polaris and Hell Raised 
dungeons. Brand new this weekend is the inclusion of 
player vs. player gameplay, where the secret 
societies must duke it out in legendary locations 
such as Stonehenge and Eldorado. Participants will 
also get to experience the persistent player vs. 
player war zone of Fusang Projects, where over two 
hundred players clash together in a massive struggle 
for server-wide power. The outcome of these battles 
affects all players belonging to the victorious 
secret society, across the server.

The previous Beta Weekend - titled 'Hell Raised' - 
ran from June 15th to June 17th and saw the highest 
number of players yet participating and is 
undoubtedly the most successful event yet. 

"The game is definitely living up to our 
expectations, and it appears this is a sentiment we 
share with our testers as well," says Funcom SVP of 
Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. "The playtime per 
participant during the last Beta Weekend was very 
impressive, shattering all records from previous Beta 
Weekends or even beta events from our previous games. 
This is a strong indication of the engagement and 
depth of the gameplay experience. Beta surveys have 
shown that four out of five players will recommend 
the game to their friends, something we find 
remarkably positive and a true testament to the 
quality of the game and the amazing work the team has 
done." 

'The Secret World' is consistently mentioned as one 
the most highly anticipated MMOs in development. The 
highly engaged and active community surrounding the 
game continues to grow quickly, and hundreds of 
thousands of community members have already sworn 
allegiance to their secret society through online 
initiation tests as well as 'The Secret War' Facebook-
powered pre-launch social experience that saw over 
250.000 participants actively engage in the conflict 
for their secret society.

In well over one hundred hands-on previews throughout 
the international gaming press the past eight 
months, 'The Secret World' has been heralded as "one 
of the most distinctive MMO's of the last 10 years" 
(Videogamer) and world-leading online gaming site 
MMORPG.com went on to predict that "The Secret World 
is going to take the world by storm and set new 
standards in excellence in gameplay." The game has 
also been singled out as one of the most anticipated 
games of 2012 by gaming sites such as G4TV, 
VideoGamer, and RockPaperShotgun.

'The Secret World' is developed by Funcom and co-
published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic 
Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA). For more information about 
the game or how to register for the beta, please 
visit www.thesecretworld.com. Media assets can be 
found at ftp.funcom.com/press.

Badhoevedorp, The Netherlands, 12 June 2012
Funcom