Funcom sends word that they are making some staff cuts, somewhat paradoxically giving the reason as the company's "continuing efforts to strengthen its focus on Anarchy Online." Here's the deal:

As part of Funcom's continuing efforts to strengthen its focus on Anarchy Online, the company has today made additional cut-backs in staff. Funcom employees will be affected in all three offices however there will be no cuts in the product development for Anarchy Online. All planned patches and game additions are still on schedule.

In addition to staff reduction, there will be reorganization efforts specifically in the marketing and support departments to better focus on customer needs.

"We are saddened to have to put additional employees on leave," Funcom president Andre Backen said. "But we know that this focus will continue to improve Anarchy Online as well as the communication we have with our ever-growing player-base."

Most of the staff involved work from Funcom's office in Oslo, Norway. Under Norwegian law, these employees will be put on "forced temporary leave" and affected U.S. employees will be laid off. As you may recall, Funcom was faced with a similar situation last December. Those who have already been re-hired will not be affected today. Funcom again plans to re-hire staff members as soon as additional business goals are reached.

As product development will not be affected, patches and new development for Anarchy Online will continue as planned, including the expansion pack, Shadowlands. Subscription numbers for Anarchy Online have been steadily climbing since the first of the year and Funcom expects this positive trend to continue.

In a semi-related note, there's a story on UnknownPlayer.com with the unsubstantiated report that "Netamin closed their US offices last Friday and laid off every employee." According to the story, which we stress has not been confirmed elsewhere, there's a possibility that the laid off staff will be rehired in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, they say this leaves the future of Ultimate Baseball Online, NetAdmin's planned baseball MMOG, in limbo.