The Secret World’s (TSW) Game Director Joel Bylos headed off to his fortified bunker this week to wait out the Mayan apocalypse after providing us with an amusing video. Before barricading himself inside, Bylos sent out a new letter to the TSW community to talk about what’s in store for the future of the game just in case that whole apocalypse thing doesn’t happen. I mean, it’s never happened before....right?

Bylos took some time to reflect on the game’s first year and its first five content updates and discuss the new optional subscription business model, which will provide those that choose to subscribe with access to certain features of upcoming content but at the same time make other parts available via DLC purchase.

One of the great strengths with The Secret World is our ambitious post-launch update plan. So far we’ve released five strong updates, called Issues, chock full of content, storylines, features and improvements. Having something new to play around with, something that keeps the game fresh and alive is important for us and we remain fully committed to releasing regular Issues. As part of the move away from required subscription, there will be some components of these issues that are free, while the other components will be paid DLC content. Though it will most likely differ from update to update, content such as new storylines and new locations will usually be part of the paid DLC.

Looking past the current updates, Bylos delves into the approach for future content design that will be more focused on specific storylines and cites the upcoming Issue #6 update as an example.

In Issue #6, the storyline will take place in Egypt. A series of missions that leads you through a war between the Cult of Aten and the Marya, before slinging you backwards in time to steal artifacts from the Deus Sol Invictus and then returning to the present for the climax as you fight your way along a moving train, desperately attempting to stop it from reaching Cairo carrying a bomb like the one that was released in Tokyo.

Get more from Bylos in his latest update.

Source: TSW Letter from the Game Director