Age of Conan nets 400,000 players

By Oli Welsh Published 27 May, 2008

Funcom claims strong start for new MMO.

Funcom has announced that 400,000 players have signed up to play its new MMO launch, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, in the last few days.

Age of Conan has been on general release in the US for a week, and in Europe since last Friday. Assuming the figure excludes beta testers, it indicates very healthy early sales for the game - and means it's one of the fastest-selling PC games ever.

Age of Conan broke pre-order records for a PC game last week. Funcom announced then that it had shipped an initial print run of 700,000 copies, and it seems a good proportion of these have been sold, around half of them in North America, according to the developer.

Funcom also claimed an "astounding amount" of concurrent players logged into the game, but didn't offer a specific figure.

New MMOs have struggled to succeed in World of Warcraft's shadow in recent years, with titles counting themselves lucky to gather a quarter of a million subscribers. Although it's not guaranteed that all current Age of Conan players will convert their 30 days' free play into a subscription, the signs are that this trend has at last been broken.

For more on Age of Conan, check out last week's Conan Week features on Eurogamer MMO: the launch event, the class guide, and the verdict.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • NegativeZero #1 4 years ago

    Right place at the right time. We're in the down period between the release of a major WoW patch and a WoW expansion, players are looking for something new and interesting to do. We've seen the same thing happen with LotRO - popular for a month or two, then everyone went back to WoW again. I'm expecting to see the same thing with WHOAR.

    400,000 is a nice start, but the real test is going to be whether that playerbase grows or not. Wake me up in six months or so, then we'll have a real idea as to how the game's going.

  • the_dudefather #2 4 years ago

    WHOAR: as seen on the cover of Nuts magazine

  • anomagnus #3 4 years ago

    @ negativezero

    unlikely, the dissatisfaction with WoW grows every month. The novelty factor burns out pretty quick.

    WoW has been lucky so far, in that is has not had enough serious competitors.

    I'd say the triple threat of WAR, AOC and LOTRO will draw of quite a few players.

    Now, i'm not suggesting WoW is dead, far from it, WoW could lose 75% of its subscribers, and still be the biggest player in the market (which is, in fairness, a great position to be in), but i expect the three games to even out around 400,000-600,000 mark each after a few months, with the story, pve crowd hitting LOTRO, the older more mature crowd hitting Conan and the PVP/warhammer crowd hitting WAR.

  • Hamflank #4 4 years ago

    "The novelty factor burns out pretty quick."

    World of Warcraft has been out for three and a half years and has 10 million subscribers. You obviously know what you are talking about!
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/08 @ 09:55

  • Maximilian #5 4 years ago

    I left WoW some time ago because I was bored to tears with it. Whole Saturdays spent raiding, only to end up with nothing out of it. Rep farming - I said to hell with this - its not a game, its a job.

    Then I tried LOTRO, hoping for a new experience but it was just the same thing, the same game in a different setting.

    At least with AOC, its different enough to draw me in. The combat is actually enjoyable and there's not the same amount of grinding. It early days of course.

    I think this will appeal to people, particularly those sick of WoW

  • George-Roper #6 4 years ago

    Every, every , every MMORPG or even MMOG has elements of 'grind'. Its the basic premise of the business model. Keep players playing. Players playing = income.

    Don't even try to fool yourself that AoC is anything 'different'. Its not. You may not be aware of it and may even not see it until the latter stages of the game but its there.

  • dolphan #7 4 years ago

    Are the 'older, more mature crowd' and the other two mutually exclusive? Anyway, if AoC follows the books at all, the only maturity in there is likely to be of the age rating variety - breasts, blood and machismo fantasies. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd imagine it'd be as much of a threat to the teenage boy demographic of WoW's audience as to the older sections.

  • woodbear #8 4 years ago

    I still have not been bored with combat... that makes grinding so much less pain..

  • Emth #9 4 years ago

    Yes the fact that you aren't doing exactly the same attacks for exactly the same damage in exactly the same way for 50 mobs in a row can't be understated. Small varieties are enough to make a huge difference.

    Even against NPCs repeatedly attacking an enemy on one side to get them to shift their defenses there, and thus leave another side undefended which you can hit hard with a big combo is more satisfying than anything you can achieve solo in WoW.

  • 4thVariety #10 4 years ago

    I don't believe AoC is a very mature game, just because it has the topics of sex and violence. In fact, I think it is a very immature game because of how it handles these topics.

    Sure, the Conan depicted by Howard was sort of primitive and macho in his approach to women in general, but those women who really stuck out and the women Conan really came to admire, were all these strong independent types. Go read Queen of the Black Coast.

    In the short term AoC will profit from the lack of other MMO games being released now, but once the juvenile sex and violence has settled and the long term gameplay comes in, many people will most likely move on to the next game, the next beta, or the next killer-MMO.

  • Gaol #11 4 years ago

    @anomagnus

    I counter predict that AoC and WAR will struggle to keep 100k after 3 months on retail.

  • NegativeZero #12 4 years ago

    @anomagnus:

    Yes, people are bored with WoW. Which is why Blizzard have an expansion due out later this year. Additionally I doubt they mind if people are leaving to play other games, even permanently - that's just natural. You'll notice that the number of WoW subscribers is still growing steadily, i.e. there are more players coming in than there are leaving.

    Don't get me wrong, I like what I've played of AoC despite its flaws (many of which will be ironed out, I'm sure) and I hope it will be successful. It has a number of things which Blizzard themselves should take note of (eg player cities, mounted combat) and I hope it goes places. Blizzard need a decent competitor.

    All I'm really saying is that it's early days yet. Let's see where the game's at in six months.

  • trooper6 #13 4 years ago

    Well, being a Mac owner, I'll have to wait for AoC to come out for the 360 before I experience the boobs...I mean...the blood.