Age of Conan - 700,000 and Growing

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SasqWatch
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Funcom AoC sees impressive account numbers and is still selling well from this article at Gamespot.
Durham, USA – June 30, 2008 – Eidos and Funcom are proud to announce that Age of Conan continues to dominate the PC sales charts in all markets where the game is available. Over the last few weeks it has remained the overall #1 PC game in most European markets, whilst also performing tremendously well on several all-format charts. In the US, Age of Conan impressively conquered the #1 PC spot for the first two weeks of available NPD data. Due to the amazing interest surrounding the game, more than 700.000 gamers have now signed up for an Age of Conan account. In the second month after release it is also clear that Age of Conan has taken the position as the undisputed #2 subscription MMO in the western world.
When Age of Conan stormed into retail stores as what we believe to be the most pre-ordered original PC game in history, it instantly became the best selling PC game of May. The pace at which Age of Conan sold made it one of the fastest selling PC games of all times, and Funcom and Eidos are therefore very satisfied to see the positive sales trend continue. As all countries report sales differently, it is not possible to get a complete overview of the exact box sales at the time of writing, but Age of Conan remains the top selling PC game in most all released markets. This includes being the #1 overall PC game in June in the Nordic countries, Oceania, Germany, France and Spain, as well a top three contender in all other markets where the game is out. No substantial sales data for June is yet available from the US market, but Age of Conan was the #1 PC game in the latest official NPD update.
More information.
 
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Why is then every guild I know becoming smaller? Every friends list I hear of getting more deserted? Yes, must be all evil hatebois... sheesh.

There are no American troops in Baghdad...
 
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Perhaps some of the early folks are leaving as it becomes more populated - not surprising, really. But it is clear that the sales are good and population is growing.
 
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This game has a long way to go before it can hold those numbers, but it certainly is different enough from WoW to keep some kind of community.
 
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As I said shortly after the launch... give it a few months and it will be down to Lotro & Co. The decline has obviously already begone. They sold 1 Million copies and now they have 700.000 active subscribers... and they think that's great?
 
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As I said shortly after the launch... give it a few months and it will be down to Lotro & Co. The decline has obviously already begone. They sold 1 Million copies and now they have 700.000 active subscribers... and they think that's great?

Unfortunately your statement is inaccurate - I say unfortunately because it is the marketing BS that is to blame. The game hasn't *sold" 1 million, it has *shipped* 1 million - and basically sold 700,000.

I have no idea where things are going, but so far there is no real evidence that decline-sayers are anything but 'chicken little' doom-and-gloomers.
 
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The game is seemingly number 1 in some German sales charts.
 
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I also know quite a few people that have quit AoC, because it's too tiresome to actually level up. I still think AoC high end gaming has a lot of potential, so it will be interesting to see if Funcom can maintain a solid community.
 
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As I said shortly after the launch... give it a few months and it will be down to Lotro & Co. The decline has obviously already begone. They sold 1 Million copies and now they have 700.000 active subscribers... and they think that's great?

I don't know doodle-squat about how MMORPG's actually work, but I would expect the growth curve to be something like this:

(1) Big jump in membership on release, as the initial batch of games go out and fans eagerly try out their first free month

(2) Fairly steep decline in subscriptions, as many of the people who bought it decide not to renew their subscriptions

(3) Settle into long-term curve -- decline or climb -- as people who renewed once either renew again or drop out, and word on the street goes out that continues to attract more new people than the game loses old ones (climb) or not (decline).

Some of the "new" subscribers might even be people who dropped out from the first batch because their computers weren't up to scratch/they figured it was too buggy but had potential/they got a hankering to try it again after all.

IOW, I would expect to see pretty wild gyrations in the numbers early in the game's lifecycle; the long-term trend should emerge in about six months or so.

But I'm talking totally out of my hat here. Not that I ever let it stop me.
 
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Afaik they havent even yet enabled the guest passes - i have 5 of them and I havent even started the game myself. Once the they do ebable them there will be a definete bump in the servers numbers.

Also the game is still selling - old players (who will come back in month or two) are replaced with new ones.

Theres still plenty of chances for AoC to make it big.
 
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I've never played a MMORPG in my life, but I'm entertaining the thought about AoC. If it does succeed, I just might give it a whirl. I have a soft spot for Hyboria...
 
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I've never played a MMORPG in my life, but I'm entertaining the thought about AoC. If it does succeed, I just might give it a whirl. I have a soft spot for Hyboria...

I'm in the same boat. Everytime I think about trying WoW, I just have to listen to the tales of some of the people I know who are playing it to be cured of my temporary lapse of judgement ;) But to play in Hyboria ... tempting ... very tempting ...
 
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I havent started to play it yet myself (I have the 55€ CE with leather maps and all), because its not totally finished yet. Lots of goodies are still in the patchline that will make the gaming experience better for new players. Feels like a waste to play half-finished game.

I bought the 1000 page conan centenary edition to pass time once I start the preparations for AoC. It should be a great to read as a prequel (I might watch the movies too) before starting the game itself. The last time I read the novels was like 10 years ago so I dont remember much from them.
 
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I don't know doodle-squat about how MMORPG's actually work, but I would expect the growth curve to be something like this:

(1) Big jump in membership on release, as the initial batch of games go out and fans eagerly try out their first free month

(2) Fairly steep decline in subscriptions, as many of the people who bought it decide not to renew their subscriptions

(3) Settle into long-term curve -- decline or climb -- as people who renewed once either renew again or drop out, and word on the street goes out that continues to attract more new people than the game loses old ones (climb) or not (decline).

Some of the "new" subscribers might even be people who dropped out from the first batch because their computers weren't up to scratch/they figured it was too buggy but had potential/they got a hankering to try it again after all.

IOW, I would expect to see pretty wild gyrations in the numbers early in the game's lifecycle; the long-term trend should emerge in about six months or so.

But I'm talking totally out of my hat here. Not that I ever let it stop me.

Nahh, you're pretty much right there... that's exactely how it works. I would guess that a lot of people used up their free month and did not renew their subscription. Apart from Everquest 1 and WoW which seemed to grow long after their release, I know of no other "big" mmo that could manage to actually hold its initial playerbase. I'm not an oracle, but I expect the same happening to AoC (at least to the pc version - xbox users don't have that much choice when it comes to mmos). I might be wrong, but there are quite a few things that speak against AoC. Bugs and missing content aside, the system requirements are relatively steep, it's not a high fantasy world like WoW or Everquest, it's more or less limited to people over 18, you can only choose from three different races which are hardly distinguishable from eachother, etc. Apart from that strong competition can already be seen on the horizon. I might be wrong, but I fear AoC will slowly dwindle down to Lotro-level when it comes to subscribtion numbers.
Anyway, I wish Funcom much luck... but I certainly won't play their game anymore.
 
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Only thing that could outlast WoW is WoW 2.
 
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Yep, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King will be painful for the entire MMO market (LotrO, AoC, Warhammer and so on). That expansion will certainly bring a ton of players currently tired of WoW back, and then make WoW last even longer.
 
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Yep, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King will be painful for the entire MMO market (LotrO, AoC, Warhammer and so on). That expansion will certainly bring a ton of players currently tired of WoW back, and then make WoW last even longer.

I just don't get how Blizzard manages to keep those 10.9 millions interested. Every time they just add more of the same, and voila! the WoW crowd comes back for more. Don't they get bored?

I mean WoW was a blessing for the industry at the beginning : everyone thought "so MMORPGs aren't just a niche for a handful of hardcore gamers". But now it's killing the market, killing innovation, killing creativity, everyone wants to make a game that's "everything like WoW but better" (AoC or Warhammer online and remember SWG's CU and NCU which were essentially balant attempts to "wowize" the original combat system) and things that are really different such as Ryzom or Tabula Rasa are struggling to stay afloat.
 
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Wow has grown into some kind of "industry standard" yet, I fear.
 
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