Age Of Conan Bleeds Money, Funcom CFO Quits

[Andy Chalk]

Age Of Conan Bleeds Money, Funcom CFO Quits

Age of Conan [http://www.funcom.com].

$22.8 million of Funcom's fourth quarter loss resulted from the "lagging performance of Age of Conan," according to Spore [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/funcom-reports-q4-USD23-3m-loss], it was victimized by "shorter average subscription periods than anticipated." Despite that, the company said it was committed to launching the game in new territories as well as "revitalizing Age of Conan in existing core markets."

"Funcom is a company with a substantial potential based on a unique combination of skill sets in a fast growing global market," Funcom CFO Olav Sandnes said after announcing his departure. "I wish [Funcom CEO] Trond Aas and the rest of the organization all the best in realizing the full potential of the company." Sandnes will stay on as CFO until the company can find a permanent replacement, at which time he will leave to "take up a new position in a different industry."

Age of Conan has suffered from difficulties cut the number of servers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84783-Funcom-Explains-Age-of-Conan-Damage-Bug] supporting the game from 49 to just 18.


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[sunami88]

The vultures are circling this game... Which would foolishly imply that there was a time there weren't, but you get my point.

 

[Echolocating]

Hmmm... the thing that bothers me is that 100,000 subscriptions is a fair bit of money each month, yet that's not nearly enough to keep the game going? 100,000 seems like a good sized community to me. Didn't EVE Online have a small community that slowly grew?

I think Funcom's business plan for Age of Conan was flawed from the beginning if it needs instant success to operate. I really wish that developers would scale back their visions and build things that are attractive, attainable, and maintainable... instead of trying to build the next WoW.

 

[SirSchmoopy]

You don't release an unfinished MMO.

Sorry NewbCom but everyone else saw this comming miles away. No matter how hard the suits tell you to release the game by such and such date, if it's not ready it's not ready.

 

[Nunka]

To hell with Conan. I'm worried about what this financial loss means for Dreamfall Chapters. Don't make it a comic book, Ragnar. Don't you dare.

 

[Doug]

100,000 seems like a good sized community to me. Didn't EVE Online have a small community that slowly grew?

I think Funcom's business plan for Age of Conan was flawed from the beginning if it needs instant success to operate.

Agreed! Needing $22 MILLION yearly to work is unfeasible, frankly. That should have been a wanting sign early on. Frankly, I hate when its so obvious they where expecting WoW success.

I did have Age of Conan, because I thought it'd be a fun, better MMO than Guildwars, although it turned out it wasn't.

There are MUD's out there that happily survive on low subscriber numbers (1000 or less), purely on donation, or out of the pockets of the owners. Hell, I do coding for one of them! To see them frankly wasting 100,000-subscribers worth of subscription because of awful planning really annoy's me. Its clear that there is possiblies with something like Conan, but they never worked it out right.

Look at the successful MMO's - WoW, Everquest, Eve online - all of them work with what they have, not what they want, and all of these games have a strong community around them, based on the actions (or in Eve's case, specialised lack of action) which is what really spells life or death to a MMO. Community and gameplay, followed by graphics, these are the things that spell if a MMO will live. MUD's are specialised in that they don't really have graphics persay, but they don't need the extra bandwidth to maintain, and then hence can survive on smaller budgets.

 

[oliveira8]

Hmmmm I remenber the "AoC will kill WOW!" threads....

Oh well hope Funcom learned its leasson to never release an unfinished game again.

 

[Doug]

Hmmmm I remenber the "AoC will kill WOW!" threads....

People really said that? I see... troubling!

 

[Dechef]

You don't release an unfinished MMO.

Yes... yes you do. No MMO was released finished.

Pity, I had good fun with this game for like a month, and then it became painfully clear they focussed too much on the pretty and too little on the content. Oh well.

 

[TheBluesader]

You don't release an unfinished MMO.

Sorry NewbCom but everyone else saw this comming miles away. No matter how hard the suits tell you to release the game by such and such date, if it's not ready it's not ready.

That's what so funny about them trying to compete with WoW, which is put out by a company that has made "It'll be out when it's ready" their corporate model.

WoW? Millions of players, millions of dollars. AoC? Thousands of players forced onto 18 play servers, and a CFO looking for a new office.

I guess we gamers really do prefer quality over quantity. Attention, movie tie-in studios...

 

[Doug]

I blame WoW for being the end of all it's competition I pray it doesn't happen to Warhammer online because I love that game.

Well, WoW isn't the end of competition. Other big MMO's do exist, some in the million's range too. However, these guys tried to jump in straight to the millions mark. Realistically, it was doomed to fail by that route. In order to achieve real success, you have to build up smoothly, or release a full product and expand it over time. AoC felt rushed, and not that good a game to begin with. The graphics, to me at least, where abit bland and grim. The gameplay was pretty flat. The story was abit "meh". And on top of all that, the first few hours you where kept in single player limited world mode. Not that helpful.

All in all, AoC was a badly planned and executed project.

EDIT: Oh, and I think Warhammer is safe - depends on how well budgeted it is, and how strong the community is. See how many people left AoC? Weakened communities do that to a game. Warhammer, however, already had a fanbase (Warhammer table top/faction fans), hence the foundation of a community is already there. Conan, not so much.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Poor AoC. I had such high hopes for that game... and really, at its core, it was a fun MMO. But Funcom fucked up one too-many times.

 

[Alone Disciple]

claiming it was victimized by "shorter average subscription periods than anticipated."

Lol...it was 'victimized'? Not because it was buggy, unfinished, failed to deliver on promises or hold general interest from the get go...but they were 'victimized'?

It's like me saying I'm surprised and it's unfair that I got a C- on my Spanish test because I failed to study or open the text book and know my material.

 

[Doug]

claiming it was victimized by "shorter average subscription periods than anticipated."

Lol...it was 'victimized'? Not because it was buggy, unfinished, failed to deliver on promises or hold general interest from the get go...but they were 'victimized'?

It's like me saying I'm surprised and it's unfair that I got a C- on my Spanish test because I failed to study or open the text book and know my material.

I did think that when I read it. "Victimised". Oh dear, our awful customers refuse to keep paying! Oh woe is us!

 

[TsunamiWombat]

God, pull the plug you fools.

 

[Skizle]

i could have sworn they said they were going to shut down this game. Also i to hope this doesn't happen to Warhammer. i mean yes it still has some flaws, but its still fun.

 

[SmugFrog]

That really sucks. Anarchy Online was one hell of a MMORPG (after they fixed the bugs). I loved the sci-fi setting and a big variation from the MMOs that were out at the time. Unfortunately, it is going to be a few years until something can fight against WoW - but by that point, Blizzard will probably have another crazy MMO out.

 

[ironfist86]

I blame WoW for being the end of all it's competition I pray it doesn't happen to Warhammer online because I love that game.

Nah, you can't blame WoW for this. I mean, you can, but it is AoC's fault for being a broken pile. should have waited and done things right.

i personally can't wait for DCUO, i hope they are taking note of this.