Age of Conan dawning on 360

The world of Conan the Cimmerian, the fantasy barbarian of legend created by Robert E. Howard, portrayed in films by Arnold Schwarzenegger and re-created in several games, is returning to consoles. Funcom today announced that the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has been approved for the Xbox 360 by Microsoft.

While this is good news for 360 fans who yearn to crush their enemies, see them driven before them, and hear the lamentations of their women, it isn't especially surprising. In April, rumors first began circulating that the developers had been working on a version of the game for Microsoft's next-gen console. Those rumors were further fueled in July, when Funcom announced a publishing deal for the PC version of the game with Eidos that also noted that the companies wanted to bring the game to the console market.

No release date was named for the Xbox 360 edition of the game, but a Funcom representative said it will definitely be after the PC version launches (currently expected between March and May of next year). And while the representative said Funcom has been pleased with its partnership with Eidos so far, the publisher has not been signed yet to handle Age of Conan for the Xbox 360. Funcom said it would have more information about the game, including "potential console-specific features," at a later date.

Combining action RPG elements with the MMORPG genre, Age of Conan was named GameSpot's Best Massively Multiplayer Game of E3 2006, beating out competition including EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.