With the amount of hype, advertising, positive reviews and media attention Grand Theft Auto IV has received over the past few months, we wholly expected it to remain on top of the software sales charts until our video game consoles grew sentient and attempted to purge humanity from the planet. Strangely enough, a dark horse recently overtook Rockstar's well-received crime drama in many European territories -- a horse mounted by a brawny, rippling Cimmerian.

Yes, Funcom's decapitation-rich MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures recently outsold GTA IV in a number of European locations, including Germany and Sweden. Since Rockstar's latest opus is still selling like freshly baked hotcakes in North America, we can't help but wonder if GTA's themes of living the American dream and hooker brutalization got lost in translation as the title crossed the Atlantic -- or whether Age of Conan's musclebound mascot reminds German gamers of a certain pop culture icon who is quite revered in their country.

Selling out has become a common occurrence for Funcom's upcoming MMO Age of Conan, a theme that continues this morning with news that the game's collector's edition print run of 111,000 units is "completely sold out in all markets." The announcement stings for those of us who kept putting off pre-ordering the limited edition box until tomorrow, and while Funcom notes that some boxes may still be found on retail shelves, stores will not be able to order more.

Even so, Funcom adds that it is putting some 700.000 copies of Age of Conan on trucks bound for retail shelves on day one, ensuring that anyone who fancies suiting up in virtual loincloths will be able to do so when the MMO officially begins tomorrow.

Norwegian publisher and developer Funcom has announced the amount of money armchair barbarians can expect to shell out from beneath their loincloths to play Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, with the MMO's retail box costing $59.99 and €49.99 in North America and Europe respectively. Beyond that initial outlay of coins, swinging an axe in Hyborea will carry a monthly subscription price of $14.99 in North America and €12.99 for players on the other side of the Atlantic.

However, while the oft-delayed MMO has seen a healthy influx of interest during the game's beta test, this hasn't clouded Funcom's gift for the obvious, with the company stating in an investor update that "the success of the game will depend first and foremost on the response it receives from players after several hours of playtime of the finished product."

[Via Massively]

The age of Conan will begin eight weeks late. Funcom has announced that its visceral MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, originally due at the end of March, has a new release date of May 20. The company cites further polish as the reason for the delay, but we suspect they just wanted to keep up with a never-ending trend of "final" delays for the award-winning title that had an impressive showing at E3 ... 2006.

The new release date could put the game against another highly-anticipated MMO, Electronic Arts' Warhammer Online, although our sister site Massively points out there are rumblings of a fall 2008 delay for Warhammer. Check out our impressions of Age of Conan from this month's Consumer Electronics Show.

[Via Massively]

Everyone knows that World of Warcraft is the hottest thing to hit the MMO genre since BakeQuest: The Battle for Sliced Bread. But according to at least one rival developer, that popularity may be starting to dwindle. Speaking to the accurately named VideoGamer.com, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Quest Designer Joel Bylos cites a "feeling on the Internet" as evidence WoW is beginning to lose its appeal. "You get that just from online communities, which of course we all pay attention to as well," Bylos said when asked if people might be getting tired of WoW.

We're sorry, but a "feeling on the internet" probably isn't the best way of measuring satisfaction in a game with 9.3 million paying subscribers (up from 7 million roughly a year ago) and a celebrity-packed ad campaign. Sure, there will always be internet trolls and forum whiners that threaten to leave over every little problem, but by and large the silent majority seems just as hooked on the game as ever. Much like Democrats who promised to move to Canada if George W. Bush was reelected, these vocal complainers seem good at making threats but bad at following through on them. Then again ...

[Via WoWInsider]

Age of Conan, Funcom and Eidos' perpetually delayed massively multiplayer romp through the magical world of Hyboria and its sea of rippling pecs, has surpassed 10,000 beta testers, which by itself would sound impressive had more than ten times this number of would-be warriors not signed up earlier this year. Given this, it seems that the powers-that-be have been particularly selective about who they let into their sandbox, a practice that we presume has Lord British chartreuse with envy.

The devs state that Age of Conan is being patched and updated 'frequently,' and that Funcom plans to "continuously expand the beta efforts in the months to come, including adding tens of thousands of new testers," no doubt welcome news for the thousands of would-be players still waiting at the gate, shivering patiently in their loincloths for the chance to grind alongside fellow barbarians. The MMO, which was first announced way back in Ye Olde 2005, is currently scheduled to ship for the PC on March 25, 2008, though if you are like us you're holding off placing bets quite yet.

[Via Massively]

Funcom was at this year's Dragon*Con in force with demos of their upcoming MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. While the game isn't slated for release until March 2008 (we hope), the game Funcom showed us looked pretty slick -- though they're still tight-lipped on the feat system (that would be "talent trees" for you World of Warcraft-ers) and the "spell weaving" system the magic users will have access to. We did, however, get a good look at the gameplay as well as a look at the game's female models. For those of you who have to see these things for yourself, Funcom is accepting applications for beta-testers, but for full details on what we saw at Funcom's demo, keep reading!

Remember when Funcom promised in January that their delay of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures to October was guaranteed as the "final launch date" for the MMO? Well, they totally lied. Age of Conan has been delayed again until next March. This time around they aren't silly enough to say it's the "final" time. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas said, "We believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners."

Our time with the game has been fine, but a ten minute demo doesn't give enough of an answer to how this game will avoid the MMO trap of making players not realize they are "waging a war against the mind-numbing effects of repetition." Obviously the developers think they need more time and publisher Eidos seems to be on board with that idea. Funcom now has until next March to announce another delay.

When playing an MMORPG, you're essentially waging a war against the mind-numbing effects of repetition. There's no way to avoid it in a genre that's less concerned with immediate interaction than it is with protracted character building and management. The crucial trick in creating a good MMORPG then, is to bury this almost mechanical repetition in enough layers of entertainment and atmosphere to convince you that you're plundering loot from a defeated swamp creature, and not a polygonal mass of lesser statistics. World of Warcraft is demonstrably such a game and judging by our brief time spent with it, Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures may be as well. Don't misunderstand -- it's not going to radically change your feelings towards MMORPGs, but it may prompt you to consider getting your hands dirty.

Indeed, getting your hands dirty is arguably one of Age of Conan's most prominent features. Being based on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian novels (sorry, Arnie fans!) naturally gives the combat a barbaric edge, with the ability to string together attack combos resulting in a greater sense of immediacy and involvement compared to other titles in the genre. It's not quite an action RPG -- statistics still play a predominant role -- but you are given a variety of physical attack options through a set of on-screen buttons. A smartly executed combo will finish off weakened foes with a fatality animation and a satisfying splatter of blood across the screen.

If you haven't already signed up to get into Hyboria in the Age of Conan beta test, you might want to try before they slam the gates shut. They had over 50,000 wannabe barbarians sign up during the first 24 hours of the signup period, and a total of over 100,000 over easter weekend.

Apparently they made the signup process a bit difficult in order to "avoid gamers that were simply looking for a free trial of the game." So, if you're looking for a free trial of the game, just work a bit harder during signup. With this game winning "Best MMO of E3" from several different sources, it'll only get more and more popular. Unless the beta ends making gamers shout "By Crom!" in frustration.

Developer Funcom dropped in on the official Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures forums to bring news of further delay. Bad news first: the PC version has been pushed back to October 30, 2007. And now the good news: Funcom promises this is the "final launch date." Specific details regarding this latest delay were not disclosed.

Age of Conan is currently in closed beta. Funcom is expected to announce details about open beta in the near future. An Xbox 360 version will be released sometime following Age of Conan's debut on PC.

Here at Joystiq we don't always pay proper attention to PC gaming. Luckily FiringSquad has picked up the slack. The site has issued its 'Most Anticipated' games of the year list, featuring twenty upcoming titles. Here's a look at the top five:

• Supreme Commander (Gas Powered Games/THQ) - spiritual successor to Total Annihilation; sci-fi RTS with dual-monitor support
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage/id Software/Activision) - prequel to Quake 2; two playable sides (Human and Strogg) are said to offer vastly different gameplay experiences
  
• World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (Blizzard) - the expansion to end all expansions ('cha-ching')
  
• Spore (Maxis/EA) - from single-celled to universe conqueror; the video game to end all video games
• Crysis (Crytek/EA) - it has the looks, can it live up to the hype?

Which games are you planning to upgrade your rig for?

Development of an Xbox 360 version of the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures MMORPG will soon be underway. The PC version was lauded by numerous media outlets as the 'Best MMO of E3' this year, certainly fueling the decision to extend the game's reach to Microsoft's console. Age of Conan has not yet been confirmed for cross-platform or Live Anywhere support.

Age of Conan begins as a single-player adventure, and once complete, morphs into a persistent world, online-multiplayer game; highlighted by activities like city building and PvP siege warfare. Brutal gameplay is defined by a "Real Combat" engine, which relies on active combo-inputs.

While we were unfortunately unable to fly you all to Barcelona to attend Micosoft's X06 conference, we would like to share our X06-related bounty with one lucky Joystiq reader. The person who sends in the most amusing .jpg format edit of the above picture to joyswag [dot] submissions [at] gmail [dot] com will take home the following goodies given out at the conference:

• An Alan Wake flashlight
• An Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures comic book from Dark Horse
• Three limited edition pieces of art from Mass Effect

All entries are due by midnight Eastern time on Sunday, Oct. 1, so put down those outstretched arms and get cracking.

Massively multiplayer online games, known by a series of acronyms beginning with MMO, are a rising trend among developers. With monthly fees meaning regular income, and a player base too addicted to stop, developers trip over themselves to enter this lucrative market.

We can guarantee we'll be seeing a lot of MMOs at E3, so that's why we're bringing you this comprehensive overview of every MMO we currently know to be in development -- excluding expansions of existing MMOs. Here's a quick summary of the trends that we see emerging from this list:

• East meets West.  Ten out of the thirty-five games listed are Korean MMOs hoping to make it in America and Europe, with several companies banking on the success of such a translation.
  
• Elves and Orcs. Despite a number of fantasy-themed MMOs, there are several under development that have no sign of the fantastic about them -- instead, we see themes from sci-fi to pirates.
• Microtransactions. Pay for currency, don't pay for the game -- this increasingly common strategy allows gamers to try games for free. Those who become heavy players end up pouring in more cash than they would have paid for an all-you-can-play monthly subscription.
  
• Casual MMOs. Three of the titles listed below are trying to break into the casual space, with appealing cutesy graphics and Flash-based play. Most casual titles aren't persistent, though games like Runescape have done well out of the browser-based market so far.
• New developers.  Fifteen of the studios below are working on their first MMO, or their first game altogether. This could mean increased innovation, or more problems -- MMOs are risky business.