Secret World dev closes art and animation studio as part of restructuring process that will centralize development in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Funcom's office in Beijing, China, is shutting down. The studio, which primarily developed art and animation for The Secret World, will close its doors for good later this year. The move comes as part of Funcom's previously announced restructuring process, which also sees an unspecified number of layoffs at Funcom's Montreal, Quebec and Raleigh, North Carolina studios.

The Funcom restructuring is aimed at creating a centralized team at its North Carolina studio, which will focus on development of the company's three major titles: The Secret World, Age of Conan, and Anarchy Online.

The company explained that prior to the restructuring, the North Carolina outfit only housed Funcom billing, community, customer service, operations, and quality assurance teams. Now, the outfit will also include developers, which will allow Funcom to "build a stronger, more unified team."

Funcom's office in Montreal is currently working on unannounced projects for tablet and mobile platforms. In addition, the outfit is continuing its work on the company's Dreamworld technology, the engine behind The Secret World.

Overall, Funcom said its new plan is to "build smaller, high-quality" online games while simultaneously supporting its MMO games. In addition, Funcom is working on a Lego Minifigures MMO game, though details on this project have not yet been announced.

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