Age of Conan celebrates 400,000 players

41 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski May 26th 2008 3:30PM
Filed under: Business

Funcom announced today that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' "positive pre-order trend" translated into actual sales and the game has amassed a player base of 400,000 customers. The press release also states the first 20 reviews have scored the game above 90%, but we're not seeing any of that on Metacritic (as of this post going up). It appears many major review sites are digging a little deeper and taking some time with the MMORPG before posting an official verdict on the title.

If you're looking for more on Age of Conan, sister-site Massively has been covering the ups and downs of the games launch.

Gallery: Age of Conan

Tags: age-of-conan, funcom

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Fernando Rocker: May 26th 2008; 3:39PM

Nice... still a long way until it reach World of Warcraft numbers...

The only game that could reach and surpass Warcraft, would be PokeMMOn.

Mr.ESC: May 26th 2008; 3:51PM

A PokéMMOn sounds like a good idea in theory but in practice is going to be so damn broken. I can already see people camping in the zones were legendary pokémon spawn or any place where there is a pokémon worth catching, patches to nerf moves like Earthquake and people offering broken deals.

Jeff: May 26th 2008; 5:09PM

Honestly, I will buy a Nintendo console when there is a Pokemon MMO available for it.

Maverick Saturn: May 26th 2008; 5:14PM

Nah, Monster Hunter MMORPG seems a more likely candidate. I would love nothing more then to see those giant monsters in full HD with hundreds of people around trying to take that bastard down.

Fernando Rocker: May 26th 2008; 5:20PM

... in full HD?

Like Haze, Call of Duty 4, GTA4, MGS4, etc?

bigsofty: May 26th 2008; 5:59PM

With the garbage UK monthly fee... I guarantee none of these are from the UK...

tmacairjordan87: May 26th 2008; 8:04PM

I would never buy a pokemon mmo unless they ditch that retarded 1996 turn based battle system. Part of the reason I enjoyed WoW and not FF11 is because the battle system didn't restrict me nearly as much.

SoulBlade: May 26th 2008; 3:40PM

I had heard this game was great for the free month - but I doubt it'll do anything like WoW (what will?). The combat is supposedly cool, but it's easy to script and automate - it just didn't sound fun.

Of course, MMORPGs don't really do it for me anyway, so I couldn't care less if it were good or bad. It's always good to give WoW some competition though.

GombastiC: May 26th 2008; 3:43PM

This game ROCKS!!! And it came just in time too, starting to get bored with WoW...

arrrgh: May 26th 2008; 3:44PM

ANYTHING to kill WoW

please. please.

Mr.ESC: May 26th 2008; 3:52PM

When I upgrade my computer if that ever happens I'll give it a try.

Joeshie: May 26th 2008; 4:05PM

It's alright I guess. It really isn't a whole lot different from WoW honestly.

Delgado: May 26th 2008; 4:36PM

Well in a way that is kind of good, since WoW is the most successful and arguably the beast MMO ever.

It would be nice if companies could take risks and make an MMO really new and different from WoW, but with the massive market share it holds it doesn't make financial sense to take risks in that part of the gaming industry.

Joeshie: May 26th 2008; 4:46PM

There are MMOs that take risks, but most of the time they fail because people don't want to play different games. They want to play the same stuff they have played over and over again.

Sora267: May 26th 2008; 5:38PM

The only game I know of that changed the MMO formula and succeeded was Guild Wars, and even they started to add loads of grind after a while, even though it's less than WoW's.

Maverick Saturn: May 26th 2008; 5:16PM

Got a while to go yet, theres internet mmorpgs that put this to shame, but its early days so i'll give it a chance.

Aex: May 26th 2008; 5:16PM

IMO, This game is horrible. I tried so hard to like it, yet I failed. Uninstalled it yesterday. If you want guildwars with a paid subscription this is the game to buy. Oh, don't forget you need a massively powerful PC to play it.

Luckily my friend's PC sucked so I got to play his account instead of buying my own :P I don't think it'll hold strong in the coming months. Expect the 400,000 to dwindle due to uncontinued subscriptions.

john: May 26th 2008; 6:04PM

Agreed

LaughingTarget: May 26th 2008; 6:27PM

I wonder if it's fixed yet. The game was nigh unplayable during the testing phase...last week.

TwistedBishop: May 26th 2008; 6:35PM

Last week was the release, not the testing phase. It's been in great shape for some time now.

Alan: May 26th 2008; 6:45PM

Agreed also. I can't play a single afternoon of Age of Conan without the game crashing or getting frustrated trying to find my party and dealing with the shitty instance system. I'm fucking sick of it. In the words of the AVGN, what a shitload of fuck.

GenBanks: May 26th 2008; 7:11PM

Disagree about guild wars with paid subscription, lots of big communal open areas that are pvp enabled with npc mobs.

Shagittarius: May 26th 2008; 7:36PM

Try playing past the introduction levels (after 20) before making a judgement. THe first 20 levels are practically a single player game to introduce you to your class and the game world. This game is great.

Mr.ESC: May 26th 2008; 8:06PM

Guildwars with a paid subscription huh.

*Walks away.

To be honest Guildwars isn't bad but is hard to give a f*ck about the story when in the dialog there is this giant button that has "Click here for Exp nd sh*t" on it.Nightfall was great tho'.

I don't know since my computer isn't powerful enough to play it I have to say that from point of view looks like an Oblivion MMO.

Oh yeah another problem with guidlwars is that all the spells looked like fireworks and sparkles unlike Neverwinter nights.In NWN if you cast an ice storm it looks like an effing ice storm not just a bunch of sparkles flying around.

Aex: May 26th 2008; 9:37PM

Shagi: I don't think anyone should have to play a game for several hours to a certain point (in this case lv20) just to START having fun.

But, I'll give it another shot tonight and sit through that hour long install again... So far I've done about 5 different classes all up to around lv10-ish and besides the fatalities and running around naked, I'm not having much fun with it. The graphical bugs are driving me crazy, not to mention the annoying combat system that is not much more than smashing buttons, pressing a combo, then smashing those buttons in order...

I was really looking forward to it with all the hype built up, and I've been crushed under the massive disappointment I've received through my first week playing it.

NATO_Duke: May 27th 2008; 10:26AM

I would give it to level 30 at least to judge. That's when the "Marry a Kennedy" magic power opens and you can pretty much get away with anything after that.

GenBanks: May 27th 2008; 1:13PM

It's not that you only start having fun at lvl 20, it's just that you aren't immersed into the full richness of the game until level 20 when you leave the beginner area of Tortage. Tortage is fun, because of the scripted stuff and the slightly chaotic atmosphere in the pvp areas. But it's a tiny sliver of the overall experience.

Slayer: May 26th 2008; 6:38PM

Is there a trial client out? One that I could play for a few days to see if it's worth buying?

UltimateQ: May 27th 2008; 11:38AM

A trial is a double edged sword. It may bring people in, but it will also drive people away who would potentially buy it. I myself, prefer to stick with more seasoned MMOs. Vanguard was the last MMO I got on launch, and we all saw how that went. Although its doing a lot better now.

Lavat: May 26th 2008; 6:45PM

I am waiting for Warhammer Age of Reckoning myself...Nothing beats the Warhammer Universe...Not even the one Arnold Schaganzanger was in...Still...Age of Conan did not seem to do alot for a MMO except add pretty graphics...Which is not able to run on my Computer.

GenBanks: May 26th 2008; 7:02PM

I'm level 21. Great game so far. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, real feeling of context and place. Interesting, visceral combat. If it keeps me interested, I would have to agree that this is a 80-90% scoring game.

Merx: May 26th 2008; 7:23PM

There is a 7 day trial key you can get from somebody who already has the game. But you need the discs, because its a 32 gig install.. before patches.

Ignore the haters, its good fun. If you play it on a rubbish computer I imagine it will suck, but get a better PC, just because a game is pushing the limits in pursuit of better gameplay dosnt mean you have the right to take shots at it because your PC isnt up to the task.

Slayer: May 26th 2008; 7:48PM

Wait, the game is 32 gigs without patches? What the size of the game with all the patches installed? Also, completely agree with you on the requirements of the game. The requirements aren't even that high.

tmacairjordan87: May 26th 2008; 8:07PM

Are you shitting us? 32 gigs??? What the fuck????

Aex: May 26th 2008; 9:46PM

It's not really 32 gigs... It is more like 26gb installed, they just suggest having 32gigs available on your HDD.

ComradeTrotskii: May 26th 2008; 10:37PM

I was interested in this for a while until a friend told me about the 30 odd gig requirement.

That would require the searching, categorisation watching and rating of all my porn and necessitate me deleting somewhere close to 30 gigs of it.

UltimateQ: May 27th 2008; 11:39AM

32.... 26... not much of a difference. Sure 6gb by itself is a lot. But when you up that high, 6 is just a drop in the bucket.

Gratch: May 27th 2008; 12:43PM

Regarding the 32 GB install. If you don't enough free space to fit that in, the rest of your computer is probably also not up to spec. 250 GB drives are pretty common these days, and Macs are shipping with 1000 GB ones.
Plus, think about it: WoW is almost 10GB. For three times the file size, you get five times the graphics.

Shagittarius: May 26th 2008; 7:33PM

GREAT GAME! I haven't had this much fun with an MMORPG since at least Dark Age of Camelot. Not that Dark age was fun but it was the last time i really felt like I was having a great deal of fun playing an MMORPG.

1234: May 27th 2008; 2:45AM

POKEMMO,yes that would be full of win.
Whard to do right? of course,but still 100% posible.
Casual and popular,way more than WOW .

Exodus: May 27th 2008; 6:41PM

I am still waiting for an amazing Starcraft MMO. Sure I love WoW and everything but I need something outside of the fantasy genre. Could you imagine a World of Starcraft? My life would be wasting away for hours on end on my PC just like it was when WoW first came out.

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