Conan shipments hit 1 million

By Robert Purchese Published 9 June, 2008

"Biggest MMO Launch since WOW".

Funcom has managed to ship over one million copies of its gory online game Age of Conan.

It's taken just three weeks and the supplier is hurriedly trying to meet demand, we're told.

"Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft," said Funcom marketeer Morton Larssen. "The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history."

Age of Conan has placed well in the regional all formats chart, making a smashing first-week entry at two before tumbling down to 16 last week.

The game has also been receiving strong scores, with our preliminary verdict hovering around a 7/10; a full review is planned shortly before 30-day free subscriptions come to an end.

Head over to our Age of Conan gamepage for all of our considerable coverage to date.

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. @Clert on Twitter.

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

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Comments (21) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • daedaloz #1 4 years ago

    Too bad it requires a state-of-the-art gamer Rig to even run remotely acceptable with good graphics... Big BIG let down.

    I'll stick to WoW or WAR:online when it comes.

  • Bennicus #2 4 years ago

    "rig" hehe

  • DFawkes #3 4 years ago

    I still don't get why it's so popular. What is it it does different? If it was a big movie licence one or an established series like a Pokemon MMO I could understand, but the hype for this seemed to spring up. Whenever I saw articles here I read them and thought "meh" and went on my merry way.

  • hiddenranbir #4 4 years ago

    It's mega adult mmo! Yay! Except no erotics.

    Anyway don't care about launch. I care about if the game will still be played months down the line. So I'm still waiting and seeing if this manages to sustain a population!

  • paulf #5 4 years ago

    @dfawkes - big difference is the melee combat - much more involving than wow - also the signposting on quests is better implemented than wow

    at the end of the day though i think the high numbers are due to wow players who started when wow was first released (what was it 3 years ago) who are bored of that now and need something else to play

    all in all if you enjoy mmorpg's i think its worth giving it a go - i feel i've had my £30 worth of gaming fun even if i dont subscribe

  • actionfitz #6 4 years ago

    actually quite a few of my guild mates are running it on low settings and are as pleased as punch.
    my aging beige behemoth was due an upgrade anyway, and since i use it for work... im running on a new 'rig' that cost me a princely sum of £570... running on high settings the game runs a steady 30-40 fps and looks stunning.
    its a joy to play, but as expected, has a few teething problems.
    i get my stuff from crowd called Komplett, google them, they have some quite affordable stuff for anyone looking to splurge for a gaming machine.

  • Dizzy #7 4 years ago

    Great game but I predict player base will drop at least 50% after that first month. It just doesn't run good enough for most.

  • Macross #8 4 years ago

    @Dizzy, so youve spoken to "most" have you? :)

    the game runs fine, it even looks pretty nice on low settings that i have to play it on at work. and it looks beautiful on high that i run it on at home. neither computer is less than a year old.

  • Dizzy #9 4 years ago

    "@ Dizzy, so youve spoken to "most" have you? :) "

    I look at my 15+ WoW guildies and friends who are "testing" Conan now. And about 90% of them will not play longer than 1-2 months. Sorry.. for PvP you need a very smooth framerate, something Conan is not really providing for most IMHO.
    Edited by Dizzy at 09/06/08 @ 09:55

  • Erinan #10 4 years ago

    I foresee a lot of people not continuing after the first month. The graphics are ok (looks like Oblivion, and I don't like this style), the combat gets tiring (press key for combo X, press directions according to the combo, repeat) and the instances all over the place just kill any immersion this game could give.

    And what MrZ said.

  • gmmonkey #11 4 years ago

    If you can run the game for the first 20 levels, without crashing with black/blue screens, you'll be impressed. After that you'll realise it's a bit of a shallow game. The instances are WAY over the top. I mean you instance into a house, ffs! It feels a bit like neverwinter nights in many respects. The worst thing of all is, the performance. Lag spikes, crashes, random shader problems. Totally unfinished engine. Nevermind unfinished content. Just check the technical forums. It's not just people with crappy computers it's happening with brand new spanking rigs as well. Fuckcom's communication with the community is dire. The customer service is non existant. If you send a ticket about a problem, you have to wait about online until it's been answered. If you log off you lose your spot. They share support with anarchy online. The games a total memory whore. On a plus side the combat is quite fun. Wait 6 months before deciding to play this unfinished mess. I could forgive tweaking and balancing some features etc but not a full blown early beta. Last saturday the complaints in the technical forums were so large, that the threads were sliding of the first page in seconds.

    [link url=http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28
    ]http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/forumdis...[/link]

  • Dizzy #12 4 years ago

    Now you guys are being too harsh ;)

    It is a good game and it does some things very well. Also the Conan world is done brilliantly and very faithful to the books. It just doesn't have the good performance to be a mainstream MMO IMHO. In a few months it could be great. The only gameplay thing that bothers me is that the PvP seems to (once again) very broken.

    If you are a MMO fan but you don't wanne deal with the startup struggles of a new MMO, LOTRO, CoX and WoW are still your best picks.
    Edited by Dizzy at 09/06/08 @ 11:52

  • M83J01P97 #13 4 years ago

    It will be interesting to see how many people decide to subscribe over the next week or so and carry on playing.

    I really don't think it's subscriptions levels are going to be very high until a more stable and user friendly version of the game starts to emerge.

    I like the fact EA Mythic said in a recent dev diary that they feel Conan is a superb game but has one major flaw, it's system specs and that WAR: Online will be following in the footsteps of MMO's that favour a wide range of system specs instead of aiming for the high end market.

  • mingster #14 4 years ago

    So not as good as Maple-Story then.

  • bobshirunkel #15 4 years ago

    You can kick people with a horse, though. Good times indeed.

  • AOFanboi #16 4 years ago

    <em>2. A beginner island that gets old quickly and acts as a huge barrier for alt-a-holics, as you dont want to do level 1 - 20 again at the same place.</em>

    Actually, you have differences in the "main" quest line depending on your class: Lots of sneaking for rogues, fighting for soldiers, infiltration of the sorceress "faction" for a mage etc. These are intertwined, so that your resistance contact will tell you that they have done X, where X is something another class performs in the quest line. Now, that is cool.

    Killing 50 picts on White Sands isle - is not...
    Edited by AOFanboi at 09/06/08 @ 16:27

  • Bluetribe #17 4 years ago

    Underneath the face of state of the art tech, tits and gore, resides a shallow, boring, unimmersive MMORPG, without proper PVP, filled with technical issues where all comes down to same ol' grinding... I expect the majority of the current players will not subscribe to this game (so all this Funcom bigtalk lately doesn't mean anything to me), because they will either get disillusioned by the gameplay or don't want to put up with the current issues. I expect the playerbase will consist of fanboys, newcomers to the genre and some REALLY tired WoW players and MMORPG veterans who will most likely move over to Warhammer when it's released, because it seems like Mythic is aiming for that crowd. By that time I wonder if gaming media will pick up on the low amount of subscribers compared to the large amount of buyers, like they have been doing so much on the glory & success of this overhyped and overrated "game" (or is it mere Funcom PR?).
    Edited by Bluetribe at 10/06/08 @ 21:35

  • SleepyMagpie #18 4 years ago

    Conan ships 1 million. Geez. Nothing a bit of hype won't amount to is there.

    AoC has many faults atm, some which can be rectified over time.

    But there is one thing that I am very uncertain about, and this is it's much vaunted fresh take on MMORPG fighting - it's realtime-combat.

    After about 3 months now (closed beta tester) TRYING to like, and use smartly, and grow accustomed to these active moves when fighting, I am about to give up.

    It just does not work. I mean, it works, but that's because the quests and the general fighting usually degenerates into a mass of flailing arms and weapons, with little or no skill involved, and no gauge to give any indication as to whether you're doing well.

    The much flaunted graphic gore with decapitations and the like, are not consistently reproducable after certain combos, and therefore leaves the gamer with an even greater feeling of disaffection. It's just so random!

    So I have no idea whether I'm playing well. Combos do not produce effects with certainty, and quests and mobs are droll and without depth.

    And don't get me started on the puerile "sexiness"'!

    I am certainly leaving before my free month is up, and really not sure if anything can persuade me to come back.

    No, AoC is truly a severe case of The Emperor's New Clothes, and even if I'm Norwegian and would like to be able to be patriotic about it, I really, really can't.

    Shame, cos there is some very nice talent at Funcom.

  • AOFanboi #19 4 years ago

    Realtime, schmeartime. They might like to call it that, but it's just facing (and facing has an effect in most MMOs anyway) plus rhythm-action button mashing. Your keypresses (normal attacks or combos followed by trigger attacks) queue up for when the weapon speed "timer" next will let you attack, and then dice are rolled in the background as always. There's not even the WoW/LotRO "triggered" abilities - at least not as far as I've seen. Just waiting for timers to expire.

    Engine also has a tendency to act "Anarchy Onliney" (and I am not just talking about lifting the chat system out of there and plonking it into AoC which they also have done), like how the animations rule the interaction to the point where you need to step back quicly lest the attack bring you too close to the aggro zone of the next mob. Plenty of annoyances when it comes to hindrances in the landscape as well.

    They keep talking about the "real" physics engine stuff but then they proceed to use scripted animations that e.g. makes arms enter bodies and sword hilts poke through arms. So the physics are limited to just death animations, it seems.

    Bah.

    But most quests are interesting, so... I'll give it a couple of months. Beats Asheron's Call 3 - sorry, LotRO - anyway.

  • SleepyMagpie #20 4 years ago

    I agree with all your comments except the last, AoFanboi!

    It does SO NOT beat LotRO!

    LotRO currently offers:

    * Involved quests, which evolve around and within Tolkien lore, without breaking anything major. If you're into Tolkien, it's ace.
    Also enough quests to ensure you never need grind.

    * Interwoven crafting system, where all crafts are interdependent of each other, and where most crafting products actually
    amount to something in-game (start early).

    * Good, involved instances that you can complete in parts and lock for later when you've time.

    * PvP in mature years for player characters (optional), or jump into playing a monster more or less straight away (leve10) if
    you're really keen on having at some real people.

    * Fun deeds with titles to adorn your characters with, similar to the 360's achievements.

    * Housing, hobbies and other creature comforts that you can have a go at when you're just bored of the rings.

    * RPG setting and communities that really roleplay. Try the Laurelin server here in the EU if you want in.

    And a lot more. Only reason I had issues with it initially, (at it's opening, last year) was because Vista support was really shoddy. Now the DX10 client looks and runs beautifully and is just about the only real, true example of DX10 out there!

    Only reason a MMORPG player would not like LotRO is if he/she is addicted to WoW's candied colorscheme, and hates more "realistic" depictions of nature and colors, and also if he/she prefers her MMORPG a bit less high-fantasy and prefers grit, uncouth language, swearing, burping, farting, and whatever else they do in AoC..!

    If you are a real bad boy or girl, the main course of LotRO might be too light side or good-two-shoes for you, but you could always jump into monster play at level 10 and never come back of course. I know players who live Middle-Earth lives in the Ettenmoors!

  • Aria #21 4 years ago

    I agree with SleepyMagpie!
    I try to be open minded and give AoC some credit for its not so 'revolutionary' but OK fighting system and remember that it's a new game, but it has nothing else that makes me want to play it! I tried and tried but it's just so boring! Not even comparable to LotRO or WoW, don't even go there lol... Even on their first day of release they were more polished by miles... Yes WoW is starting to feel a little dated now but LotRO gives the fullest MMO experience...