Funcom shares halve post-Conan

By Oli Welsh Published 28 July, 2008

No mention of nipples in this report.

Massively reports that Norwegian developer Funcom's stock has fallen sharply since its fantasy MMO Age of Conan launched in late May.

Funcom's shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange have fallen from a high of USD 54 on launch day, 20th May, to USD 24 at time of writing.

There's speculation that, despite strong initial sales and account sign-ups, investors are concerned at how well the game will retain its players.

Although polished in the early stages, some feel that Age of Conan's content and quality thins out as the game progresses, and that this has led many players to cancel their subscriptions. We gave it the benefit of the doubt in our review.

However, as Massively notes, Funcom's stock had been steady at around USD 25 for months prior to Conan's launch, and it's possible that the USD 54 value was no more than a temporary bubble created around the game's strong performance at pre-order.

We've contacted Funcom for comment, but our personal feeling is that the markets are a little bit emotional, and should have a nice lie down somewhere cool.

Visit the Age of Conan game page for more, and expect a report on the game's progress since launch soon.

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 (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Darkjinxter #1 4 years ago

    No share of my money for Funcom until they get AoC up to spec.

  • ciril #2 4 years ago

    Back to normality then, surely noone expected the shares to remain on such inflated level as they were post launch? :p

  • AusFreelancer #3 4 years ago

    Shares would go back up if they released another Speed Freaks. Hint, hint.

  • CunningLinguist #4 4 years ago

    A mate of mine could have made a bucket load of money on that bubble. oh well...

  • Turambar #5 4 years ago

    Out of my Guild of around 20 people not one resubscribed after the 30 days we got "free" with the game. There is just too many things that were promised for launch that were either broken or missing completely.

  • Pirotic #6 4 years ago

    Have they announced how many people are still subscribed post the 30 free days?

    If not, there is your reason.

  • berelain #7 4 years ago

    EG seems to be being very 'kind' to Funcom and AoC lately, despite the fact that it simply hasn't delivered on many of the bug fixes and revamps that it so despertately needs. I've given it one more months subscription, but unless things change drastically in the next couple of weeks I'll be leaving it behind as another Vanguard, I'm afraid.

    Pity. It has promise.

  • Notorious_LRO #8 4 years ago

    Someone told me that WOW had the same backlash (from players, not stock market) the first few months after the games release. This couldn't all just be a little bit of history repeating?

  • anomagnus #9 4 years ago

    this means nothing, stocks and shares go up and down.

    while investors may have seen a cash cow, thinking they had another WOW here, that has nothing to do with the developers

    again, i think its unfair to judge the game based on its first month and a half.

    also remember the whingers are the most active on the forums, re-enforcing their own beliefs by finding people that agree with them.

    christ, remember the AO launch? Even wow could have been smoother.

  • Gurgeh #10 4 years ago

    "Someone told me that WOW had the same backlash (from players, not stock market) the first few months after the games release"

    WoWs problems at release were all hardware related, with the servers being overloaded for weeks. Later on there was limited raiding content but most people were still getting their keys for UBRS at that time, so it wasn't a big deal. AoCs problems are balance and bugs and lack of content, and the difference is that people can jump ship to a quality product when Funcom fail to deliver.

  • paulf #11 4 years ago

    @pirotic if they announced that I think the shares would drop further

  • Turrican #12 4 years ago

    Maybe I was not ever meant to be a fantasy MMO player, but trialling this game felt like Dark Age of Camelot all over again. The world of the MMO is a harsh place for any game that is not perfect out of the box these days. Players are growing tired of the same old grind and bugs.

  • Vinicity #13 4 years ago

    No share of my money for Funcom until they release Dreamfall Chapters.

  • Olemak #14 4 years ago

    @ Eurogamer: There is an error in the article. The currencies got mixed up there; with NOK (Norwegian Krone) confused with US Dollars. FunCom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, and in NOK only. Seeing as one dollar is worth about 5.5 NOK, the difference is rather big in term of how much the stock is traded for.

    Besides, analysts have always valued this company at about 23 to 27 NOK per stock. So this is really back to normal after a rather intensely hyped period around the launch. Nobody is worried about this, except the amateurs who bought FunCOm stock at the peak of the hype.

  • MrChuckles #15 4 years ago

    I borrowed my friend's copy, spent 30 mins installing, pressed '1', '2' and '3' a lot, and then gave it back thinking 'thank god i didn't spend any money on that!'

    Got to level 14 with the dark templar and level 9 or 10 with the necromancer, who in comparison was so easy, i didn't get hit once.

    Ok, so i didn't give it a great chance, but it really didn't deserve it.

  • sizusizu #16 4 years ago

    Its not a surprise considering the state of the game. All it takes is 5 minutes on the official forums to see why players are leaving this awful game.

    Funcom never communicate with the players of their game, with the exception of inaccurate patch notes and hyped up letters from the director, so I wouldn't expect a reply to the questions raised by the site.

  • Erinan #17 4 years ago

    The game is just bad - not surprising then, really. Many players are going back to their previous MMO (entire guilds have been leaving after the first month), AoC will just stay a niche-game and a failure for Funcom.

  • actionfitz #18 4 years ago

    ... WAR and lich king still to come out...
    ill definitely try WAR but im jumping on the 'increasingly excited about WoTLK Train' too.
    AOC was a missed opportunity. they promised too much and delivered to little...
    They are missing things printed ON THE BACK OF THE BOX for fuck sake.
    that sort of attitude gets them no sympathy from me...
    until they release new longest journey / dreamfall games that is...
    :)
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/08 @ 16:23

  • jakeblaine #19 4 years ago

    The game is broken, customer service is non-existent. The pvp balance is uncorrected, every patch that is released breaks something important to the enjoyment of playing the game. There are GM's telling people to fight "fairly" on ffa pvp servers of all things and giving out 24 hour bans to those they don't feel are doing it to their satisfaction. There are constant server side lag disconnects along for the ride. Avoid this game for the next 6 months or be willing to put up with an alpha release your paying money for.

  • mkreku #20 4 years ago

    Oh wow, the backlash is pretty strong in this one..

  • Gaol #21 4 years ago

    Yep, no wonder after the frankly ludicrous 8/10 posted on this site.

  • Orange #22 4 years ago

    I am one of the many who has unsubbed, and on my server the number of cancellations has been enormous. Also going by the people from my wow server who left for the game, practically everyone seems to have come back again or quit both till WAR or Lich King. Sounds like it's a similar story in most places.

    It's a pity, there are some nice ideas in AOC and it really did have a lot of promise.

  • Valland #23 4 years ago

    Just as expected.
    Good thing I sold my shares a week after launch day.

  • auutumn #24 4 years ago

    This is expected, I knew that the inflated numbers would be misleading to those of any intelligence. The IP should never have been given to FunCom and I truly hope that they all sink into oblivion!

  • orakio #25 4 years ago

    With the whole world economy failing at this time, it's hardly surprising to see this. A incomplete game will have something to do with it, but even if it was great, shares would have dropped.

  • nikobe #26 4 years ago

    After an amazing launch and a very exciting buzz at starting anew our entire guild has now left the game with some creeping back to the safe zone of wow till Warhammer comes out.

    I think it was a bit greedy of Funcom to put in 80 levels when there is only content for about 50, they obviously only wanted to get ahead of wow on some statistical level (MMO top trumps "my level cap is higher than yours!";)
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 12:02

  • Fusey #27 4 years ago

    Very few people actually go back to an MMO after they have quit so soon after release.

    The exception to the rule is WoW where people rejoin for the expansions and free major content updates.

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