Midgard on ice

Funcom has announced that Midgard, which had already been put 2831406on hold after a round of layoffs at the company last December, is now on permanent hold, effectively canceling the project. In a letter posted on the official Midgard site, the game's design director, Ragnar Tornquist, said that Funcom was "entombing it in the permafrost...and moving on."

In explaining the reasons behind the decision, Tornquist noted that a number of other online RPGs are based on medieval fantasy themes. Funcom, the publisher that created the sci-fi online RPG Anarchy Online, has been through a series of cutbacks over the last year. Midgard was unveiled at E3 2001, shortly before Anarchy Online was released. Tornquist was the designer of Funcom's acclaimed adventure game The Longest Journey .