Most of the recent news surrounding The Secret World has focused on cryptic tweets and forum posts from fictional characters. Today we finally get a new concrete announcement: Funcom and EA Partners will co-publish the horror MMO. While no release date has been announced, this move brings the game one step closer to reality.

You can read the full press release after the jump. If you haven't done it yet, head over to the game's official site and take the initiation test to see if you're a member of the Illuminati, the Dragon or the Templar.

Official press release:

Durham, USA – January 10, 2011 – Funcom, the award-winning game developer responsible for titles such as ‘Anarchy Online’ and ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’, and EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced their agreement to co-publish Funcom’s highly anticipated modern-day massively multiplayer online game ‘The Secret World’. Hundreds of thousands of gamers have joined the ever-growing community surrounding the game, and have – even before launch – become active members in the game’s secret societies: the Illuminati, the Dragon and the Templar.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Funcom, one of the world-leaders in the development of massively multiplayer online games,” says David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners. “We are very excited to be able to take part in the growing online gaming category with such a highly anticipated title as ‘The Secret World’.”

‘The Secret World’ is a next-generation massively multiplayer online game for the PC platform, where players are given total freedom to create and progress their characters, unbound by the restrictions of classes and levels. Players will get the opportunity to join one of the three secret societies and fight for power over important locations throughout our own world.  Players will also journey through familiar places across the globe, such as Egypt, New England, London, New York and Seoul and battle monsters of myth and legend.

“We are tremendously excited to be working with what is undoubtedly the world-leading games publisher for the past decade, and it is also a great testament to the fantastic work of our development team,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “The experience and the knowledge that Electronic Arts brings to the table will be instrumental in allowing us to realize the full potential of ‘The Secret World’.”

‘The Secret World’ is Funcom’s third massively multiplayer game, having previously developed the award-winning ‘Anarchy Online’ and the best selling new MMO of 2008 ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. No release date has been announced.

For more information, visit the official website at www.darkdaysarecoming.com.