Age of Conan pushed back to May

By Robert Purchese Published 21 January, 2008

Sits alongside Warhammer Online.

Funcom has told Eurogamer that Age of Conan has been pushed back to 20th May.

The gory MMORPG was previously expected in March, but apparently the developer needed more time to iron out bugs and stress-test the systems.

This isn't the first time AoC has been delayed. The game was originally scheduled for release late last year.

As for the 360 version, Funcom is keeping shtum - simply stating it is "to follow".

While a delay for the sake of quality sounds bearable, it does mean AoC will launch alongside other World of Warcraft-contender Warhammer Online, which is due out sometime in the second quarter.

Still, Age of Conan and its oily pecs have impressed us so far. Pop over to our preview to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • Machetazo #1 4 years ago

    Thar's not the most fortunate of positions for them to find themselves in, really. The 360 version's lack of clarity, married to a stronger appreciation of Warhammer, means that AoC will probably have its work cut out for it, to get me to consider it, for a while.

  • dan13l #2 4 years ago

    This all assumes that Warhammer doesn't slip. Which in this day and age is more likely than it not doing.

  • orakio #3 4 years ago

    Makes sense that both AoC and WAR will further delayed alongside eachother.

  • zoidberg #4 4 years ago

    I liked the Age Of Conan at Leipzig's CG last year. And their booth babes that had a throne set up so that you could get a picture with them... for free. Sword, robe and crown included. And the picture was taken by a photographer and available on the website the next day. Really cool stuff. :)

  • kallenai #5 4 years ago

    Have to agree with Mach, not the most sensible choice of release schedule for AoC given the popularity that I would expect Warhammer can draw from its table top Games Workshop fan base. Just got an inkling that WAR will attract many non-mmo types purely on the basis they are fans of the Warhammer universe in much the same way that Blizzard's WOW attracted many who were loyal to the Warcraft franchise.

    Never will fathom MMO developers/publishers who release their product at the same time as another MMO is hitting the market, theres only so many gamers out in the market and I'd have thought you really want no competition for 'new' mmo at the same time.

    Oh well time will tell once May arrives.

  • Darkedge #6 4 years ago

    I'd bet on another delay, may isn't likely tbh

  • Gurgeh #7 4 years ago

    Well AoC needed the work so it was a choice of pulling a Vanguard or hoping to outclass Warhammer and that Wrath of the Lich King doesn't come out at the same time.

  • mkreku #8 4 years ago

    Can't you just make the third and final game in the Longest Journey trilogy instead? Please, Funcom? :(

  • Benno #9 4 years ago

    I personally think that releasing conan a couple of months after WAR would keep a stronger long term fanbase

    Lets not forget wrath of lichy king which is also on the horizon

    War fans who first delve into WAR online may get a taste for MMOs in general and if they dont get on with the game mechanics they may look elsewhere in the future (conan)

    If people realise WotLK is just the same old shitty wow grind, and WAR is actualy quite wank (which tbf, looks likely from the beta impressions) then conan will mop up the straglers and existing MMO players

    I dont, however, think conan will bring many new people into the MMO universe in general

    I imagine conan will do very well and its fan base made up of people like me, who want more mature content and a more advanced graphical engine and are sick of kiddy graphics

  • Agent_Llama #10 4 years ago

    Am looking forward to this a lot, but don't really mind the delay as still on my adventures to hit 70 for the first time on WoW, plus get my chocobo on FFXI. Looks good though so nice that they're taking the time to get all the problems ironed out.

  • Gurgeh #11 4 years ago

    "If people realise WotLK is just the same old shitty wow grind"

    Based on the last WoW expansion most people won't get into the "grind" for about 3 months after WotLK is released, and then you have to assume most of those people don't want to grind when the numbers say they do.

    Right now I'd say Warhammer was in a more finished state than AoC, which might not be saying that much. Warhammer is also much more WoW-like which may or may not be an advantage. AoC on the other hand has promised much but the last few weeks has seen the backpedalling begin (dropping two classes, dropping the number of zones, dropping formations, dropping destiny quests at least at release). What many people don't realise is that what's been demonstrated to journos and at trade shows isn't what is in the beta. There are no high-res textures in beta. There are no female characters in beta. The Cheetah2 engine improvements are not in beta. There is no high level content in beta outside of trash monsters to level up on. Items have the same stats, or are missing stats altogether.

    There's a lot of work to be done on AoC and I would not be surprised if it was pushed back even further.