Funcom announced Craig Morrison has a chair in their company as the new Game Director of Anarchy Online.

Funcom announces that ?Anarchy Online?, the award-winning massively multiplayer online game set in a sprawling science fiction universe, is now under new leadership. Long-time ?Anarchy Online? devotee and Funcom Community Manager Craig Morrison has been appointed as the game?s new Game Director, picking up the torch passed on by previous Game Director Morten Byom who will occupy a new position at Funcom.

Morrison has been following ?Anarchy Online? for years. Besides playing the game since before launch in 2001, Morrison has written hundreds of guides and operated one of the game?s largest fan sites. For the past few years he has been employed at Funcom as a Community Manager, working closely with the players of ?Anarchy Online? and the potential players of ?Age of Conan?, and he also been extensively involved in the planning and development of ?Anarchy Online? as part of the game?s management team.

"It is a true joy for me to be working on ?Anarchy Online?, and I am very eager to begin the job building on the remarkable success that the game has had for the last five years," said Craig Morrison. "The game is still a top priority for Funcom, and we aim to provide both new and existing players with an abundance of new and exciting content in the years to come."

While Morrison picks up the reins on ?Anarchy Online?, previous Game Director Morten Byom takes on the role as Assistant Game Director for ?Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures?. Byom, who is tremendously experienced with developing online games, will be leading the team that is already well into the development of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Funcom is putting a considerable amount of focus on the console title, and is aiming to provide a completely new massively multiplayer experience for console players. The PC version is scheduled for release in October 2007, while the Xbox 360 release will happen later though no specific date is set.

?Anarchy Online? have won numerous awards since its launch in 2001, and over a million people have logged in and taken part in the science fiction-based online universe. The game holds four expansion packs to its name; ?Notum Wars?, ?Shadowlands?, ?Alien Invasion? and ?Lost Eden?. Players can download the game and play the entire classic version for free, and a paid subscription is only required if the player chooses to download and play the expansion packs.