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Funcom: Everything going 'according to plan'

Age of Conan developer not concerned with pretax losses, boasts 1 million signups for the game's beta.
By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UK
Posted May 13, 2008 8:25 am PT

Norwegian developer Funcom has released its latest set of financials along with an update the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures beta.

Like the company's previous quarter, the results for the first quarter of 2008 shows losses before interest and tax at $3.13 million, compared to $1.21 million in the same quarter in 2007. Revenue dipped slightly to $1.64 million, compared to $1.79 million in Q1 2007. Earnings after tax came out at $919,000, which compared favourably with last quarter's $223,000 "mainly due to currency fluctuations, and tax income." As of this week, the company has a cash balance of some $47 million.

Despite the continuing losses, Funcom maintains the negative numbers are exactly what it expected given an increase in the cost of sales and marketing for the upcoming Age of Conan game. According to the report, more than 1 million people have signed up for the Age of Conan beta, which has now gone gold in anticipation of its launch on May 20 in the US and May 23 in Europe.

Weighing up what could go wrong with the launch of Age of Conan, Funcom identified that a "key risk" would be the stability of servers, and it has to make sure servers are stable at launch and able to cope with the "unprecedented demand" likely when the game is finally released.

As for other projects, the Norwegian firm revealed sci-fi MMOG Anarchy Online now has a new rendering engine and that work is being carried out on a booster pack. Upcoming MMOG The Secret World, which has a modern-day setting with massive monsters and secret societies lurking beneath the everyday facade, is being built with the Funcom proprietary engine DreamWorld.

According to Funcom, "four playfields are well underway towards completion." The company adds that some of the staff from Age of Conan will be moving over to the project once the game has been released. There are also plans for a series of casual MMOs, which are in the "technology development phase."

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39 Comments

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masterchief9000

if your craving true open world PvP...no MMO matches Lineage 2. Completley player controlled world and economy.

Posted May 25, 2008 1:10 pm PT
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S2Ghost

Got it today but servers are busy so i cant update

Posted May 17, 2008 6:11 pm PT
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SEEDman_X

Funcom makes good games. I am looking forward to it. However, I really hope that they will start working on the third installation for the Longest Journey after this.

Posted May 17, 2008 8:05 am PT
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IDarkNight

This game is so amazing. I wanna play NOW! the only problem is the requeriments for PC.

Posted May 16, 2008 12:16 am PT
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GraydonT

I hope the X360 and PC Versions are not on the same servers.. Final Fantasy XI learned the hard way because the PS2 is severely limiting the games potential for computer and 360 players.. then again, the 360 is powerful so you never know.. but computers do advance way too fast for their own good.

Posted May 15, 2008 6:21 am PT
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Jakeamalake

I hope everything works out for them,.. for my sake.

Posted May 14, 2008 8:26 pm PT
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supamancam

Lol... It might be 'aimed' at 'Mature Adults'.. But no-one without rocks in their head would believe that's what it'll get. Violence + nudity = ++++++++++++ pre-pubescent young lads. Check out the state of the AoC forums, to get a feel for what I mean. Enjoy the gankfest

Posted May 14, 2008 7:48 pm PT
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haqtiq

This game is gonna be the bomb, I mean if you want WoW.. play WoW.. Age of Conan is aimed at "Mature Adults" I'm certain the game will see its set of preteens, but never the less you will have a large adult audience. I am excited because it's something new, not only that I am expecting to really enjoy the scenery because the new PC just for gaming should be in soon, I was playing on a semi-crapper in beta and felt the pain, but I expect great things from this game.. not to mention it's Conan.

Posted May 14, 2008 11:37 am PT
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FatesMessenger

There is a planned 360 version, but they haven't really made any comments on how similar it will be or how it will work.

Posted May 14, 2008 9:40 am PT
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Simechak

Pretty sure it's PC only, bro.

Posted May 14, 2008 9:31 am PT
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destrozz

ive been waiting to get my hands on this. I have to buy the 360 ver because my PC can't handle this gen graphics, and not have frame rate issues.

Posted May 14, 2008 8:44 am PT
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morpheusxp

I have enjoyed this game immensely. It is very beautiful the best looking MMO i have ever played. The gameplay is very intuitive,I was enjoying it in less than five minutes. The Conan lore makes it very interesting. Much more so than WOW. I very much look forward to continuing my adventures in Hyboria.

Posted May 13, 2008 8:09 pm PT
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gfile

How much we must wait ...i wanna play.

Posted May 13, 2008 2:30 pm PT
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iamsthedogfood

Although it's a valid criticism that the gameplay isn't much different than WOW I don't think that is Funcom's emphasis. They really seem to be capturing a gritty and engaging feel to the game and the battle system is intuitive. Something I would like to see though is the ability to infiltrate other guilds as a spy. I'm also curious how siege is going to work.

Posted May 13, 2008 1:53 pm PT
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FatesMessenger

They've already stated before the current beta client is not the client they're using for the game, it's a beta client, hence the fugly. The actual polished up client is what they're releasing on the 20th.

Posted May 13, 2008 1:21 pm PT
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GrimGravy Posted May 13, 2008 12:59 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
Swampthing Posted May 13, 2008 12:56 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
PiNwOrM Posted May 13, 2008 12:28 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
Sins-of-Mosin

From what I've heard, the lastest AoC beta looks fugly and plays as bad. I hope the retail is very well polished or this horse going to break it's leg before it's even given a chance.

Posted May 13, 2008 11:52 am PT
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Kooken58

Was looking foward to AoC, but ever since open Beta came out things have been looking worse and worse. Now with the mention of max players of 48vs48 in fights and prolly not going to play it at all. Its not that its too few, bet its still going to be laggy with that many. The issue is i want the freedom of having more. If a large guild wants to attack they have to choose the 48 players they want and some get left out in the fun. Also this means its just more freaking instancing everywhere like in WOW. I will just wait for WAR for the freedom of non instanced in Open world pvp. AoC is turning into the bigger clone WOW in terms of pvp than WAR is.

Posted May 13, 2008 11:28 am PT
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legomann

me too

Posted May 13, 2008 11:14 am PT
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Darthnomann

I tok a look on a Follow up on Dreamfall, as ive read it seems like there is going to be a Follow up as Ragnar Tørnquist says, "he says that they are planing on it, but that doesnt mean they have started on it yet, and it might take some years.. but that post is quite old its from 2006 so might happen after Age of Conan is out they will start making it

Posted May 13, 2008 11:13 am PT
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Darthnomann

Online Sequel o.O I'll take a look on that. Hope youre right

Posted May 13, 2008 11:04 am PT
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legomann

I thought that the said they were going to make an online sequel for dreamfall.
they have announced secret world

Posted May 13, 2008 10:51 am PT
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Darthnomann

Downloaded AOC allready tok about 6-12 hours its like 14gb i think it was. Early Access, Pre Ordered 3 Collecters Edition
just waiting for the 17th may, exept that is also the national day for Norway... so i wont be drunk when im coming home. hehe

Posted May 13, 2008 10:39 am PT
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SrTVBR

I can´t wait to play AoC on 20th may.

Posted May 13, 2008 10:33 am PT
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Darthnomann

In the Norweagian News site, it says that Funcom wont make anymore "Offline Games" because of piratcy because they loose so much money on it, but you never know.. maybe they will make a follow up on Dreamfall. Story in Dreamfall was quite nice but to short, i prefer Longest Journey

Posted May 13, 2008 10:24 am PT
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deannatrois

come on we have had no info on dreamfall chapters scinec its been anoused i need info

Posted May 13, 2008 10:05 am PT
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countomally

@Phoenix2Raven -
ya , dreamfall ending was lame , and short compaired to "the longest journey" want a sequel! and hopefully do it better cause i found dreamfall to easy , and not as interesting as the last , dident like the repeated switching between characters , when it starts to get good like i was watching a movie more then playing a game

Posted May 13, 2008 9:42 am PT
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Phoenix2Raven

@never-named - yeah i was wondering the same thing. wtf is up with the dreamfall followups.

Posted May 13, 2008 9:39 am PT
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joeyfine

please dont suck!

Posted May 13, 2008 9:35 am PT
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never-named

...and what about that Dreamfall follow-up?

Posted May 13, 2008 9:18 am PT
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snax13

this should be a good games...more for the hardcore MMOers, WOW is just to easy...

Posted May 13, 2008 9:13 am PT
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QuasarZ71

They are already getting my money. I've been enjoying the beta and have already pre-ordered. I start playing on the 17th

Posted May 13, 2008 9:10 am PT
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Kentisc

You can't say that the game won't do well untill it's released.

Posted May 13, 2008 9:03 am PT
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RK-Mara

What exactly does 'well' mean? Age of Conan isn't targeted and doesn't need 10 million subscribers. Blizzard does one billion a year, that's a lot more than the needed 48 million to make Age of Conan profitable.

Posted May 13, 2008 9:01 am PT
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Emale Posted May 13, 2008 8:46 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
countomally

i think age of conan , will do well to its target audience , offer somethink better then the typical mmorpg (just new things , like more story , interactive combat) , still wont reach out to gamers like wow did... since age of conan is designed for high end gamers only (matches mature rating) and funcom should know this very well , still should be fun even vanguard what clearly failed aint died and was fun for 2months but the grind made me hate it

Posted May 13, 2008 8:45 am PT
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peeweeshift Posted May 13, 2008 8:43 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)
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