News out of Norway today will delight the many fans of The Longest Journey saga and raise a few eyebrows at the same time, as Funcom has announced the continuation of the series through the online, episodic release of Dreamfall Chapters.

As first alluded to in their third quarter financial report last year, the future of Dreamfall lies not in one final installment, but in a series of new episodes to be delivered exclusively online. In announcing Dreamfall Chapters, Funcom did speculate that "there may be retail releases with combined chapters, both for console and PC, at a later stage," though this is by no means guaranteed.

Funcom is not disclosing any details about Dreamfall Chapters for the time being, except to say that they will pick up right where the previous game left off, which will no doubt come as a relief to those left agonizing over Dreamfall's cliffhanger ending.

Making Dreamfall Chapters possible is financial assistance from the Norwegian Film Fund, whose grant will allow Funcom to "establish a core technology team which will research online-only delivery methods of episodic content, as well as lay the foundation for a later pre-production phase of Dreamfall Chapters."

Looking even farther ahead, Funcom is also toying with the notion of a TLJ MMO. This seems a logical fit given the developer's experience in online gaming through Anarchy Online and the upcoming Age of Conan, though at present this is only a concept being considered.

There is no target release for the first installment of Dreamfall Chapters, but as pre-production has yet to begin, it will be some time yet. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to know that the TLJ will indeed continue, and of course we'll be following details of its progress closely in the coming months.