Timeline

The Blue Mountain location reveal.

The Week of the Illuminati begins.

The Scorched Desert location reveal.

The Week of the Templars begins

The Week of the Dragon begins

The first phase of the secret war starts, allowing community members to sign up and join a faction using their Facebook account. An option also exists for people who do not wish to use Facebook.

The subscription model is announced to be traditional monthly payment alongside a micro-transaction in-game store where players are allowed to purchase many things, including cosmetic clothing. This store will be careful balanced with the game in order to not give players an unfair advantage.

Funcom announces that TSW will ship in April 2012. Beta registrations will open up on August 26th, 2011. A fourth CGI trailer was also released.

Funcom attends EA Showcase where they demo an early dungeon, The Polaris, on Solomon Island.

The third CGI cinematic trailer is released.

First quarter report was released stating that the game has reached a major milestone and "entered the phase of limited external beta testing."

A new section is added to the website detailing NPCs that will appear in game.

Reported that the Xbox 360 version of The Secret World has been stalled.

GDC information is released, giving the community a new trailer, a redesigned official website, and plenty of new location, character, and monster information.

Funcom announces that it will be co-publishing The Secret World with EA. (Source)

Press embargo for Gamescom 2010 is lifted, and Developer Diary #1 is released, showcasing the London starter experience and developer interviews is released simultaneously on many news sites.

A trailer is released to the public. This is the first time the community gets a clear, albeit short, look at gameplay footage.

Embargo on information from GDC is lifted. Many game review sites publish articles on what they were shown. A teaser for an upcoming trailer is also released. Information can be found here.

Details concerning the Templar faction are released in an interview with game creator Ragnar Tornquist in the third and final day of interviews.

Details concerning the Illuminati faction are released in an interview with game creator Ragnar Tornquist in the second day of interviews.

Details concerning the Dragon faction are released in an interview with game creator Ragnar Tornquist.

Third Quarter Financial report is released. The report briefly mentions the Quest for the Flag event. It also notes that 200,000 people signed up for the secret societies, and that 90 people are currently working on the project. It states the next milestone as March 1 and comments on a vertical slice with core systems and game play in place.

It is announced that Funcom will be laying off 20% of its work force and as a result would likely push back the release of The Secret World by a few months. (Source)

The second cinematic trailer is released.

Three in-game factions are revealed. the Templars. The Illuminati. The Dragon.

Funcom opens a new studio in Montreal, Canada. Several "key personnel" are relocated to the new offices. (Source)

Three Are Coming viral marketing campaign begins.

Q2 2009 Financial Report released by Funcom. Gives a status on the current progress of The Secret World stating:
1. 100 people working on project
2. In alpha stages of development of various aspects of the game

Funcom releases their Q1 2009 Financial Report. Notes from the presentation include:
1. Positive feedback from journalists and gamers
2. Reveal video viewed by est. 1.000.000 gamers
3. Game tracking positively against competition
4. Higher interest in TSW than in AoC at same stage in development

Funcom launches a second viral marketing campaign and releases a cinematic teaser for TSW.

Some small snippets of info concerning TSW are mentioned on Ragnar's blog. A new piece of TSW concept art is accidentally leaked on Ragnar's blog. Funcom advertising for:
1. Senior Character Artist (Oslo)
2. Concept Artist (Beijing)
3. Environment Artist (Beijing)
4. Lead Graphics Artist (Beijing)

The Q2 2007 report has the TSW team at 35 employees and the game is in its first phase of full production. I would assume given the advertised positions that the team will be of an increased size by the next quaterly review.

Funcom advertises for people to work on TSW. Positions include:
1. Gameplay Programmer
2. Project Manager Art
3. 3D Programmer
4. Tools Programmer
5. Location Artist
6. Associate Producer
7. Character Artist

Ragnar Tørnquist heads to Beijing for meetings with the Chinese section of the TSW team. Source

Funcom presents their 2007 Quarter 1 financial presentation. The presentation includes details of the viral marketing campaign, other details include:
1. Over 100 key gaming people are informed of the launch
2. There are partnerships with key media
3. Six online sites have been launched

Ragnar Tørnquist discuss the launch of the viral marketing campaign for TSW (Source). Funcom publish an official press release about TSW.

Funcom begins viral marketing strategy as initial advertisement for TSW. The Cry Gaia website timeline for the marketing campaign can be found here.

Funcom is rumoured to be showing off a new MMO at the Game Developers Conference (Source 1, Source 2). Funcom's Annual Report for 2006 contains 1 new piece of concept art and 2 screenshots of TSW. The screenshots look far more advanced than the ones leaked to wikipedia (Source). Funcom also discuss how TSW production will ramp up as AoC approaches release. Funcom will transfer the AoC team to work on TSW until the team reaches full size in approximately 2008. In addition to traditional markets (US + Europe), TSW will be targeting the Asian market, and the Beijing office will have a key role in development.

UK gaming magazine Edge carries an a job advert for an unknown Funcom MMO. The picture of the girl later turns out to be related to TSW, as the same picture appears in a Funcom presentation in a section on TSW.

Funcom officially announces The Secret World (formerly Cabal and The World Online) as its next MMO. The size of the team working on TSW is 35 people. Funcom 2007 Q1 report.

Two screenshots of The World Online made using an early version of the graphics engine that will power TSW are leaked to Wikipedia (Image 1, Image 2). The age of these screenshots is unknown. Ragnar Tørnquist hints in his blog that they are from an old and early prototype of TSW. (Source)

A number of domain names are registered: www.darkdemonscrygaia.com, www.darkdaysarecoming.com, www.amaskedcryadoring.com, www.agrimoddarcanesky.com, www.anygodimarksacred.com, www.adreamysickdragon.com. Ragnar Tørnquist first mentions The Secret World in his blog on June 10th. Funcom's third quarterly report for 2006 states that “The World Online was approved for entry into the first phase of full production”. The team is known to be composed of 20 people with Ragnar Tørnquist heading the project (Source). The quarter 4 report states that the team working on The World Online has expanded to 33 people.

Funcom announces in the Quarter 3 2005 Financial Statement that Funcom has initiated development of a new MMO known as The World. The World will become TSW (Source). Funcom files the name The Secret World as a trademark on Nov 14 2005.

A playable demo of Cabal, which will one day become TSW, was made ready for E3 ’03. This version was using a different engine from the current version of TSW (Source). The demo/movie was shown at E3 2003 and short description can be found here and here. The demo was refered to as The Next Big Thing. Later, in his blog, Ragnar Tørnquist confirms that The Next Big Thing = Cabal = The World Online = TSW. We know the engine will have changed since this early demo, there may also have been gameplay/story changes as well.

Preproduction of the game that will become TSW began sometime in 2002, but the team were moved to Dreamfall in mid-2003. (Source)

The Longest Journey is completed and Ragnar Tørnquist is pitching ideas, including one that will eventually become TSW. (Source)

Ragnar Tørnquist has the original concept idea for the game that will become The Secret World (TSW). (Source)