The fifth Age of Conan update, dubbed the "Gangs of Tarantia," has now gone live, bringing the most significant changes yet seen to the Funcom-developed MMO.

In addition to the new region of Tarantia, which the developer says will add "several hours" worth of content, the game has also seen fundamental changes to its item and questing systems.

"Items now have statistics that are easier to understand and that are more similar to what you find in similar MMO games," wrote Funcom on MMORPG.com. "With items being more important, questing and raiding will turn out to be a lot more rewarding than before."

Other changes include the addition of PvP minigame experience, population growth in player cities, social pets, and a reworking of the gem system.

Following up on word that face import technology is coming to Age of Conan "soon," developer Funcom has denied any current plans to bring such tech into its PC MMO.

"While Big Stage may be planning to implement the technology in games soon, it is not currently slated for implementation into Age of Conan," said Funcom.

It appears as if the issue stems from miscommunication and tricky word play, as a trailer demonstrating the tech with Age of Conan assets told viewers to look for it "in-game soon," but did not specify if that game would indeed be Age of Conan.

Update: Funcom has denied plans to bring face import tech into the game itself.

Players of Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will soon be able to bring their own faces and voices into the mature PC MMO thanks to a three-way collaboration between Big Stage Entertainment, GGL Global Gaming, and developer Funcom.

Using three user-provided digital images, Big Stage's web-based technology creates a 3D "@ctor," which can then be customized with accessories, such as an eye patch. GGL is handling promotion, with prizes for those that "share" their "@ctor" most.

Currently, the implementation is limited to videos and images on the web, but Big Stage vows that the "@ctors" users create today will be supported "in-game soon... Read more

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.

The forthcoming server mergers for Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will result in a total of 18 global servers for the PC MMO, down from 49 worldwide.

Following the initial merger of the Bloodspire and Hyperborea servers on January 7, the developer saw no major issues, and has now unveiled the next phase.

The mergers were announced shortly after the game's original director left due to his dissatisfaction with the project. His replacement, Craig Morrison, said the mergers would "ensure the best gameplay experience" as servers will now have more players.

In a forum post, Funcom noted its hopes to merge the European servers in one go and the US servers in another, though no timeline has been announced. The planned mergers are listed below, with the server retaining the bolded name.

US Servers
• Set (PvE)
  • Damballah
  • Bardisattva... Read more

Though there's been no official word for a while and developer Funcom recently laid off some staff, the studio is still planning to deliver the long-promised Xbox 360 edition of its mature MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

"The Xbox 360 version of the game is still in production, but as before we are not committing to any specific dates," product manager Erling Ellingsen told MTV Multiplayer. "I wish I could give you more information, but I can't at the time being."

As for the layoffs, Ellingsen noted that "our aim is for this to not affect development of Age of Conan, or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking firmly to our plans."

Following its May 2008 launch on PC, Age of Conan has seen some troubled times, including a misogynstic glitch that made male characters more powerful than their female counterparts, and the recent departure of game director Gaute Godage, who cited his dissatisfaction with the overall product.

More recently, newly appointed game director Craig Morrison announced his intent to begin addressing common woes, such as "content gaps [at] the highest level."

Age of Conan developer Funcom today confirmed reports that it has laid off a number of its US employees.

"We did have some staffing cuts at Funcom this week as well as new positions opening in the organization as part of our ongoing cost based efficiency and performance initiatives that are vital to any business," said a Funcom representative to TenTonHammer.

Though the company did not specify the scale of the layoffs, a rumor out of TenTonHammer claims that 70% of Funcom's workforce has been cut, with its customer service and quality service divisions seeing the bulk of the firings.

Funcom reported in June that its MMO Age of Conan had captured a userbase of approximately 700,000 subscribers, but by August that figure had dropped to 415,000. World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has claimed that 68% of Warcraft players who cited Age of Conan as a reason for canceling a subscription have since returned to Blizzard's game.

Age of Conan producer and game director Gaute Godager left the project in September, citing his dissatisfaction with the title. Since then, Funcom has focused on responding to subscriber feedback, releasing a large, free update to the game last week.

The long-promised DirectX 10 support for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will arrive in the "next major game update" for the PC MMO, developer Funcom has revealed. "We have been determined that the new DirectX 10 functionality would not just be a 'gimmick' addition to the game and would add visual quality to the game," newly appointed game director Craig Morrison wrote in his November Letter.

"We feel that the version we are preparing now for testing does achieve this and in a way that will find the right balance between visuals and performance," he added.

While Morrison did not specify when the "major" update will arrive, he revealed that the next update will pack two new dungeons "aimed at maximum level players" in an attempt to begin filling "content gaps [at] the highest level."

Funcom today released what it calls the largest free update yet to its fantasy MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

The free update adds a new outdoor area called Ymir's Pass, as well as a dungeon called The Amphitheater--the latter apparently containing an "epic" monster encounter.

Check out some media from the update below.

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Over half of the subscribers that left World of Warcraft to play Funcom's rival PC MMO Age of Conan have since returned to World of Warcraft, developer Blizzard has revealed, adding that the return rate from Mythic's Warhammer Online is currently at 46%.

"To date, 68% of the players who listed Age of Conan as their reason for cancellation and 46% of the players who listed Warhammer as their reason for cancellation have reactivated their subscriptions to World of Warcraft," Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explained during a financial conference call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

Last month, Blizzard claimed that "a significant number of people, well over half" had returned to World of Warcraft from Warhammer Online after its September 18 launch. As for Age of Conan, which launched in May, Blizzard previously reported a 40% return rate.

Launched in 2004, World of Warcraft currently has over 11 million subscribers worldwide, with the game's second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, due out next Thursday, November 13.

Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is to have its servers merged, meaning that all players in the same geographic region will play together instead of on several identical but discrete versions of the same game world. As new game director Craig Morrison wrote on the game's official forums:

I can today confirm that we are actively working on an approach to merge servers, both in Europe and North America. It's important for us to ensure the best gameplay experience for you all, and more healthy populations on each and every server will make sure we maintain healthy communities for the game in the future. Still, there are many complexities involved in this, and we want to ensure that everything happens as fair and streamlined as possible. That work has now started, and we are naturally making sure that guilds and players can get to new servers in the best possible way. We will come back with more info on this, but I hope that this will serve as a positive injection to the social scene in the game.

Morrison, who has been acclaimed as more "player-centric" than his predecessor, hints that boosting populations will improve the quality of the game for players. But the need to do so alludes to a serious problem: the game lacks players. While the game boasted 700,000 players earlier this summer, it has proven unable to seriously pull players away from the 10-million-plus juggernaut World of Warcraft. Meanwhile, Conan's problems are sure to worsen with the rapid growth of rival Warhammer Online.

Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has a new game director and with him comes the promise of a more "player-centric" direction for the MMO that launched in May.

"I think that the fact that Gaute leaves means that we get a direction which is more player-centric, since [new game director Craig Morrison] is so good at being hands-on with the communities at all times," said Funcom product manager Jorgen Tharaldsen to MTV Multiplayer in reference to the sudden departure of Gaute Godager.

Godager was a founding member of Funcom and served as producer on Age of Conan through the game's launch before leaving, citing dissatisfaction with the finished product.

"We have seen but the start of the evolution of Age of Conan, and out of all the people in Funcom, I can't think of anyone which could do it better than Craig," said Tharaldsen. His optimism echoes that of Morrison himself, who promised, "My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns."

Age of Conan producer and game director Gaute Godager has left Funcom, the company announced today.

A sixteen year veteran at Funcom, and one of its original founders, Godager admits to issues with the MMO which launched back in May. "I have done my very best making this fabulous game, but I have concluded there are elements which I am dissatisfied with. I have decided to act on this, and as a result I have chosen to leave Funcom. It is time to get new, fresh eyes on Age of Conan," said Godager in a statement.

He added, "I have had a fantastic time these last 16 years, and I am very proud of the many things Funcom has achieved. Funcom and Conan will always be a big part of me, but as I now look to new ventures outside the gaming industry I am certain Age of Conan's future is in the best of hands."

Replacing Godager will be Craig Morrison, who served as producer and game director on Anarchy Online for the past few years. According to Morrison, "My main priority now is therefore to listen to, and act on, player concerns, while ensuring we add additional great content to the game."

Funcom's mature PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures today marks the latest game to arrive in Valve's PC digital distribution storefront Steam.

While carrying the same $49.99 price as the retail edition that arrived in May, the Steam release of Conan will sell for 10% off, or $44.99, during its first week of availability.

Developer Funcom has announced that the first retail expansion pack for its mature PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will hit next year.

The accompanying teaser image for the expansion, pictured left, suggests that the it will add Oriental areas, foes and lore to the game.

Alongside news of the expansion pack, the developer issued screenshots highlighting the difference between the title's DirectX 9 and Direct X10 graphical effects--with DX10 support coming in a free future update to the core game--along with a look at some of the upcoming free content.

Update: Later in the conference call, it was revealed that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will arrive between October and December.

Original Story: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime today discussed the effects that the recent launch of Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan had on World of Warcraft (PC).

"Age of Conan released with some initial success," Morhaime noted. "We did see some of our players leave, [but] about 40% of those players have returned to World of Warcraft."

According to the CEO, World of Warcraft has a key advantage as competitors are going up against "a product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now."

Morhaime refused to specify a release date for either StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3, merely noting that both games were "heavily in development" and that the... Read more

Nearly two months after Age of Conan hit retailers, developer Funcom has launched "the first part" of its buddy program for the PC MMO, allowing select buyers to invite non-subscribing friends into the game for up to seven days.

Though all retail copies of the mature multiplayer role playing game came packed with the promise of a 7-day guest pass, only those who purchased the Collector's Edition can currently obtain passes from their account page. Up to five guest passes are available for CE owners.

The program "will soon open up for the Buddy key found in the standard retail box as well," Funcom wrote on the game's official community site.

The studio suggests that friends lend out their Age of Conan install discs to invited buddies, though it is also offering "a $2.99/€2.99 client download with 3 additional days of playtime to cover the download time."

Publisher Funcom has issued a response to complaints arising out of the Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures (PC) community over attack speed discrepancies between male and female characters.

The complaints stem from an issue based in the MMO's basic combat system, in which female player characters dealt less damage than their male counterparts when engaged in combination attacks.

"Let me begin with saying 'yes, we here at Funcom agree with you; this is an unacceptable bug,'" said Age of Conan designer Svein Erik Jenset on the game's official forums. "We never intended for any character to be stronger/weaker than another based on its gender."

Jenset went on to explain that the imbalance boils down to the difference in character attack animation between male and female characters, which is one of ... Read more

Furthering its prolific tendency of positive announcements, Age of Conan developer Funcom today claimed that the recently-launched PC MMO is "the undisputed #2 subscription MMO in the western world."

Funcom has repeatedly trumpeted Age of Conan's relative success against Blizzard's MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft, which has over 10.7 million subscribers worldwide and helped bring in over $1.2 billion across 2007.

Conan has now amassed over 700,000 accounts since its European and North American release in May, with the game said to be topping PC sales... Read more

Funcom game director Gaute Godager has addressed concerns of a lack of end-game content in his company's hit MMO Age of Conan, stressing that more quests are on the way for eager fans.

"What we chose to do at launch was to play it safe--to pick areas and zones and regions and hold them back, then finish them post-launch," explained Godager in a Eurogamer interview.

"That was to be able to polish the areas that we did for launch to a higher degree. So on the content side, the big zones that we're giving out this Autumn like Ymir's Pass and others--those are definitely pre-launch stuff that was cut or put on hold."

Godager noted that some 60 quests were patched into to the game in the past few weeks, with a further 60 fully-voiced missions to be added soon.

Funcom recently released a list of upcoming Age of Conan features, which include major PVP additions.