Funcom Loses $23M, Age of Conan Subscribers Fall Below 100,000

February 23, 2009 11:40 AM

Age of Conan developer Funcom today announced a fourth quarter loss of $23 million, with an overall 2008 net loss of $33.8 million.

The news comes along with the announcement that Funcom's chief financial officer, Olav Sandnes, has resigned from the company. At one time boasting 700,000 subscribers following its May 2008 release, Norwegian financial group DnB NOR Markets now estimates that subscriptions to Age of Conan have fallen below 100,000, according to E24.

Funcom shut down 63% of Age of Conan's servers in January, reducing the MMO from 49 online worlds to 18. Age of Conan game director Gaute Godager left the company in September of last year, crediting his dissatisfaction with the game as the primary reason for his exit.

Nick Breckon

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virtualsinner

 reply
February 23, 2009 11:43 AM

warhammer online is next lol
- hirez
  
   reply
  February 23, 2009 11:45 AM
  
  which is too bad. Because warhammer was actually good & interesting (despite some balance issues).
- ShadowRam
  
   reply
  February 23, 2009 11:46 AM
  
  How do you figure? WAR isn't even close to the garbage AoC was...
  - Shin_Chan72
    
     reply
    February 23, 2009 11:51 AM
    
    While I enjoyed both initially, I could see WAR doing this also. There's just not enough there to grab and keep many playing for long I don't think. For me it was just something about it feeling like a very linear path for a mmorpg, didn't feel much like a "Warhammer World" is the only way I know to put it.
    - Visceral Monkey
      
       reply
      February 23, 2009 11:53 AM
      
      It's on the same downward spiral. The first 20 levels of Conan were at least fun to play. I burned out on WAR about about 18 and forced myself to 20. Pretty easy to see the directions the game was taking at that point (scenarios! scenarios! scenario!)
      - Angrakhan
        
         reply
        February 23, 2009 11:58 AM
        
        You clearly haven't played recently. ORvR is active in all 4 tiers at least on my server. The ORvR influence system was a stroke of genius. The new RvR-gated dungeon will only further stimulate ORvR. I don't even bother with scenarios unless we're trying to flip a zone.
        
        Shin_Chan72
        
         reply
        February 23, 2009 12:02 PM
        
        Not trying to knock it , but can it actually handle large battles now ? I remember the engine basically chokeing in Tier4 battles at Fortresses.
        
        Defacil
        
         reply
        February 23, 2009 12:07 PM
        
        No, the engine can't. It was terrible in DAoC and it's just as terrible in WAR.
        
        Visceral Monkey
        
         reply
        February 23, 2009 12:03 PM
        
        No I haven't but that's kind of the point, isn't it? I got turned off and haven't come back.
  - Porkasaurus
    
     reply
    February 23, 2009 11:56 AM
    
    Maybe he means Warhammer won't grow. It won't have more people playing a year out, it will have less.
    - virtualsinner
      
       reply
      February 23, 2009 11:57 AM
      
      yeah.. its not a bad bad game.. but did not make many people's expectations who wanted DAOC2
- Sylvanus
  
   reply
  February 23, 2009 12:28 PM
  
  I like WAR. I like LotRO as well. I tried another WoW trial. I don't get it. WoW is completely boring in the beginning (Human Warrior).
  - node
    
     reply
    February 23, 2009 1:29 PM
    
    Warriors are fucking boring for the first 20 levels, then you realise you cannot actually die.
  - Derringer
    
     reply
    February 23, 2009 6:25 PM
    
    I rolled a warrior 4 separate times before sticking with it because it's so slow to start off with.
- node
  
   reply
  February 23, 2009 1:22 PM
  
  Except it's a better game with 3x the subs right now, a significantly lower drop from the same launch high.
  
  If anything, WAR is looking rather good ATM. And rightly so.
- silverback1138
  
   reply
  February 23, 2009 7:14 PM
  
  That would be horrid. As much as I loved WoW I want some good competition for it and WAR was is actually a great game. It isn't as demanding most other MMO's as far as time and the classes were some of the best that I've played in any MMOG.