Tag: Age of Conan

Play Age of Conan My Lord, Free Forever!


Hey, Fileplanet subscribers! Do you want to experience the action, breasts, excitement, breasts, and breasts that Age of Conan has to offer, but don’t want to deal with the pesky process of buying the game and paying for a subscription? Subscribers to Fileplanet can participate in a free unlimited trial, con limitations, today!

Head over to Fileplanet today and claim your key. Aren’t a subscriber to Fileplanet? Look at it this way: Spend the 6 bucks for a month, cancel your renewal, and still grab the key. Limited trial members will be unable to participate in the less important aspects of the game, such as public chat, trading, or using the forums, among other restrictions. You weren’t planning on using those anyway, I have a hunch.

Access the original game today! This desperate grab for subscribers brought to you by Fileplanet, Funcom, and viewers like you! Well maybe not you exactly. Mainly people who fall for not really unlimited, unlimited trials.

Welcome Age of Conan..ers.


The MMO Fallout Exploded today

I’ve poked fun at Funcom from time to time, be it their questionable business decisions, cutting prices Freddy Krueger style in a desperate grab for more subscribers, and announcing a delay on a non-dated title. I may have opened up a portal, however.

If you look at the chart above, that’s the traffic to MMO Fallout (Which excludes myself). Startled to see that spike, I dived into the statistics to find that the most searched phrase that led here was: “Age of Conan.” Whether our new visitors are existing players, or those looking for information on the title, MMO Fallout welcomes you and your hordes of buddies.

So what’s the deal, restless group of oddly silent visitors? Am I making sense or do I have the wrong picture about Funcom and their titles? Drop a comment.

A Downward Spiral Does Not Mean Death.


I like to take some time every now and then to detail certain parts of MMO Fallout, usually terms and expressions I use, that generates the most feedback from fans. More recently, I’ve had a few questions about my consistently ending certain product articles (Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan, Planetside, and several others) with “More on ____’s downward spiral as it appears.” Some of the readers appear to be under the impression that I’m calling the deaths of these MMOs, lovingly pointing out that I have said from day one that I will never predict the death of an MMO.

Well they are right, at least on the last point. When I say downward spiral, I always have facts to back myself up, and I am not always referring to subscriber numbers. Take Funcom for example, who not only cut off 20% of their staff, delayed a non-dated MMO, announced a massive revenue drop, and somehow is still finding the time to develop a free to play kid MMO. When I say Funcom is in a downward spiral, I mean financially that company is in a downward spiral, that changes direction depending on your hemisphere and leads right into the septic tank.

I don’t call death because, to be honest, it’s redundant. Dwindling subscriber numbers? Yes. Financial ruin? Yes. Ponzi Scheme? Stargate Worlds. Calling death on an MMO is akin to calling yourself a soothsayer and predicting that someone would die, but they would have financial gain at some point before they do. Not when they’ll die or what the financial gain is, and all that can be chalked up as everyone dies and, generally, everyone has an income at some point in their lives. Blamo, you’re the most generalized soothsayer in all the land.

Continue reading “A Downward Spiral Does Not Mean Death.”

Funcom: Revenue, Outsourcing, and More Dissappointment…


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...
If Funcom's money was gold backed.

It has certainly not been a good few months for Funcom, and according to the company, the situation is expected to get worse. After September’s notice of layoffs of 20% of the company’s workforce, we received further news that the upcoming MMO, The Secret World, would also be delayed by at least several months. Age of Conan and Anarchy Online are allegedly unaffected by the downsizing.

Age of Conan, alongside several other titles, is in the middle of a furious campaign to gain long term subscribers to their title (Because, as I say time and time again, it’s all about retention rate), bringing in heavy discounts for multi-month packages, veteran rewards, and more. Age of Conan has an expansion pack in the works, while Anarchy Online has its major graphics upgrade.

More after the break…

Continue reading “Funcom: Revenue, Outsourcing, and More Dissappointment…”

Wait, Wasn't Funcom Downsizing? Another MMO?


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My encyclopedic, borderline obsessive compulsive brain allows me to notice trends and related material, even if I can’t exactly remember when it happened or what that related material is (if my brain was encyclopedic, no one bothers to put the books back in alphabetical order, and someone keeps drawing on the pages). So when I saw that Funcom has been given a grant for development on a new MMO, I had to check my own archives to make sure I wasn’t having a brain related event, or confusing companies.

Lo and behold, I find it quickly: Not only quickly, but because it happened just in the past couple of months. In late September, Funcom announced that they were laying off 20% of their workforce. The company’s move to Montreal not only resulted in a downsizing, but I couldn’t help wondering at the time if firing one in five employees would cause disruption to the company’s two live titles (Age of Conan and Anarchy Online) and their title in production: The Secret World.

Continue reading “Wait, Wasn't Funcom Downsizing? Another MMO?”

Wait, Wasn’t Funcom Downsizing? Another MMO?


tsw_screen_1

My encyclopedic, borderline obsessive compulsive brain allows me to notice trends and related material, even if I can’t exactly remember when it happened or what that related material is (if my brain was encyclopedic, no one bothers to put the books back in alphabetical order, and someone keeps drawing on the pages). So when I saw that Funcom has been given a grant for development on a new MMO, I had to check my own archives to make sure I wasn’t having a brain related event, or confusing companies.

Lo and behold, I find it quickly: Not only quickly, but because it happened just in the past couple of months. In late September, Funcom announced that they were laying off 20% of their workforce. The company’s move to Montreal not only resulted in a downsizing, but I couldn’t help wondering at the time if firing one in five employees would cause disruption to the company’s two live titles (Age of Conan and Anarchy Online) and their title in production: The Secret World.

Continue reading “Wait, Wasn’t Funcom Downsizing? Another MMO?”

Age of Conan: Please Play Me!


09NovemberPBEdit
This Article has nothing to do with naked women...

If Age of Conan could be transposed into a human being, it would probably call you up at two in the morning, drunk, and wondering why you dumped it so long ago. Whenever it phones up, it has brand new explanations for why we should take it back, new incentives we may not have had several months prior, and new tricks it learned that it can’t wait to show us.

But let’s keep this about the game, shall we? Recently Funcom launched a slew of price reductions on the game, and its subscription rate. The boxed copy currently runs you around twenty dollars USD, and multi-month subscriptions were slashed, up to 45% cheaper as you increase in time prepaid.

Is it working?

“I can’t comment on any numbers,”
-Erling Ellingson

Gee…Thanks, Erling, chief spokesperson for Funcom.

What Funcom can tell us, however, is that the updates have been a huge success at least with the current players. Funcom also launched a veteran system recently, where players accumulate points for each month of subscription, that increases incrementally the longer you sustain a subscription. Funcom is continuing to address concerns of content gaps, and the title has its first expansion pack in the works: Rise of the Godslayer.

Here’s hoping this helps Age of Conan’s subscriber numbers. Otherwise, Funcom can always make the title freemium, offer a free basic version with a paid upgrade, similar to that of Anarchy Online. Doing so might entice more people into putting a 30 gigabyte game on their system.

Funcom: Age of Conan Unaffected


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Earlier this week I did an article on Funcom laying off 20% of their workforce. While the layoffs have officially delayed Funcom’s upcoming MMO, The Secret World, by at least 3 months, I questioned how this would affect Age of Conan, namely its upcoming expansion: Rise of the Godslayer.

I can happily say that, in this bad news, there is good news. Rise of the Godslayer has not been affected by the layoffs. There is still no news on the Xbox360 version of Age of Conan, or a release date for either the upcoming new MMO, or Rise of the Godslayer.

More on Funcom and their upcoming titles as it appears.

Funcom Layoffs: Delays Imminent


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As September draws to a close, Funcom ends the month on a bad note: The developer of the MMO Age of Conan announced today that they are laying off 20% of their workforce. The developer is looking to reduce redundancies in its ongoing focus to move the company to Montreal, where they can enjoy more tax breaks and lower wages.

Funcom’s upcoming title (pictured above), The Secret World, has been officially delayed by “several months.” The title does not yet have an announced release date, and a release date of late 2010 to early 2011 is expected. It is unknown if this will affect Age of Conan’s upcoming expansion, Rise of the Godslayer.

Also unannounced is what effect, if any, will be had on Funcom’s current titles: Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.

Direct 2 Drive: Good Stuff Cheap


d2drive

Been thinking about picking up that MMO title, but don’t want to run the risk that your initial investment will be a dud? Direct 2 Drive has the answer for you. As part of their 5th year anniversary, you can pick up a few select MMO titles for just $5 USD. This week (Running from the 20th to the 26th), the following titles are only $5 (USD)

For those of you not looking to pick up any new MMO titles, there is a plethora of old and new titles on sale for five dollars, with a new range of titles every week. If you’ve been holding off buying Eve, Age of Conan, or Planetside, you have until this Saturday ends to snatch up a copy and get your free month.

If you have five dollars handy, you can choose between one of these titles and a foot long Subway sandwich. In my discredited opinion, the MMO might last longer.