Funcom’ Age of Conan incentives for returning players

Funcom announced today that it plans to repeat its re-evaluation campaign that went live earlier this year for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The campaign encourages former subscribers to come back to the game and play free of charge for two weeks. As an additional incentive for players to come back and play for free, they will also receive a double experience boost throughout their free period. Those who decide to continue playing beyond their free period will also get access to the beta test for The Secret World, a free copy of the expansion and more.

Players who return and choose to continue subscribing to the game after their free period will get some other rewards as well. Details about that can be found after the break.

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Age of Conan gets a free update

Funcom has launched a free update for its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Update 5.6, or Nights of Lost Souls if you need to give it a name, introduces new in-game seasonal content, new quests and rewards, a new high-level dungeon and the Veteran Points system. In tandem with this update Funcom has also introduced significant discounts on all longer term subscriptions.

The new seasonal content will allow players to acquire appropriately themed loot such as the Unholy Backscratcher weapon as well as a pet demon. Players will also be able to discover a mysterious new location in Tarantia and visit the Iron Tower, a high-level dungeon towering over the rooftops of Tarantia Commons – the city’s slum district. The addition of the new dungeon brings the storyline of Tarantia Commons to its final conclusion. The Tarantia Commons location was added to Age of Conan in an update earlier this year.

The Veteran Points system allows players who have subscribed to Age of Conan for one month or longer to collect exclusive rewards such as mounts, experience potions, teleportation abilities, special equipment and more. All players accumulate Veteran Points over time by staying subscribed, and these points can be used at special in-game vendors. These points are also awarded retroactively, so current and previous subscribers already have points to spend.

Finally, new discounts for subscriptions have been introduced: Adding three months game time to your account now yields a 20 percent discount, six months game time yields a 30 percent discount and 12 months of game time gets you a 45 percent discount.

Funcom opens Montréal studio

Funcom announced that it has opened a new development studio in Montréal, Canada, where the company says it will build a “strong and competent development team that will work on several games in the Funcom portfolio.” The company will seek out local talent and well as transplant exisiting talent into the studio going forward.

Funcom has over 320 employees from all corners of the world employed at the company’s offices in Norway, the US, China, and Switzerland. The company is responsible for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures as well as the sci-fi themed MMO Anarchy Online. The company has developed more than 20 titles since its founding in 1993 including The Longest Journey and Dreamfall adventure games.

Funcom is currently working on the expansion pack for Age of Conan called Rise of the Godslayer as well as its new MMO The Secret World. Developers at the Montréal studio will play an important role in the development of both titles.

Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer announced

Funcom announced Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer, the first expansion for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Inspired by the cultures of eastern Asia, Rise of the Godslayer promises to send players on a voyage to the Empire of Khitai where more brutal adventures await. Rise of the Godslayer introduces a whole new storyline and a new world to explore, as well as new features such as faction gameplay and an alternate advancement system.

New locations in Rise of the Godslayer include the Northern Grasslands, the Chosain Province and the Pillars of Heaven. Those that explore
these new regions will encounter inhabitants at war with each other and not too friendly to outsiders.

Players will be able to take part in these conflicts by joining up with many of the warring factions. Faction gameplay plays a large role in Rise of the Godslayer, presenting the player with choices that earn them both allies and enemies in Khitai. Through questing and adventure players can advance through faction ranks, rewarding them with treasures such as epic new armor and weapons.

Players can choose to continue their adventures with existing characters, acquiring new combat abilities and spells through an alternate advancement system, or start over again as a Khitan – an all-new culture.

is one of the world’s biggest gaming shows, and runs from . GamesCom (August 19th - August 23rd in Cologne, Germany) attendees can find Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer in Hall 9 during the show.

Age of Conan: still alive

Funcom’s Age of Conan is still alive and it’s getting a brand new update for those subscribers that haven’t given up on the action-y MMORPG. Update 5 – Gangs of Tarantia gives players a whole new area called the Tarantia Commons district, complete with a new storyline, more enemies to defeat, and more rewards to be had. This is the fifth installment in a series of updates that brings new and improved content to the game.

Besides adding new content, the update also introduces fundamental changes to how the game is played. Players will now find that items within the game and their associated statistics have changed radically, making items have a more profound impact on your character’s powers. This will make equipment even more valuable, and the process of obtaining new weapons and armor through quests and adventure even more rewarding.

The update also introduces a number of other changes and additions: guild cities will now see an increased activity as guards and merchants now walk the streets, bringing life to the settlement. Also, players can now gain PvP (player vs. player) experience from doing PvP mini-games, and even purchase social pets such as snakes, dogs, and cats. For more information on all the improvements the update has to offer, visit the Age of Conan community web site.

LOGIN 2009 Speakers

Evergreen Events has released the official schedule for the 2009 LOGIN Conference, a week-long event dedicated to the business of online gaming - from multiplayer technology to MMOs and all stops in between. Looking through the speakers list on the conference’s official site, there’s a lot of familar names and companies attending including my former colleague from GameSpy Todd “Tungsten” Northcutt (consider that and official shout out, Todd). The annual event takes place in Seattle, Washington May 11 - 14 at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel.

So who will be at LOGIN? Robin Walker from Valve Software, and reps from such companies as Xbox 360, Atlus Online, Turbine Entertainment, Sony Online Entertainment, Simutronics, Netdevil, Near Death Studios, 38 Studios, VentureBeat, Bohle Company, Funcom, Divide By Zero, GamerDNA, GGL Global Gaming, Wonacott Communications, Gazillion Entertainment, Flying Lab Software, Cryptic, THQ, Big Fish Games and on and on. Over 85 speakers are expected to attend to give speeches, partake in panels and interact in over 60 sessions across three and a half days.

For more information on LOGIN, hit the link above.

Funcom Posts Loss, CFO Resigns

Funcom isn’t starting out the week with good news. The company reported an operating loss of $23.2 million for the fourth quarter on a less than stellar performance of Age of Conan and a full year net loss of 33.8 million. On top of that subscriber levels for the company’s most prominent MMO are believed to be at right around 100, 000 - that’s dramatically down from its 400,000 launch numbers. all bad news.

But the icing on the cake is that the company’s chief financial officer, Olav Sandnes has resigned in the wake of these bad numbers. On the plus side, the company did report revenues of $8.7 million, up from $1.2 million in the same period a year ago. The company also expects to see revenues of $6 - 8 million in the first quarter of Fiscal 2009, and has about $39.4 million in cash on hand.

So while this news is a bit disconcerting, it looks like Funcom will be okay going forward and - perhaps - Age of Conan will see new subscribers from new territories; the company announced today that it had launched in Russia and Poland.