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Funcom has bullishly claimed that MMORPG Age of Conan will last longer than Anarchy Online, an MMO that recently celebrated its eight year anniversary.
In January Funcom merged a number of Age of Conan servers, a move normally the result of a player base spread thin over too many servers. It led some to fear for the future of the game, following its troubled 2008 launch.
In February Funcom reported an operating loss of $23.3 million for the fourth quarter, due to the lagging performance of Age of Conan. Analysts estimated subscriber levels below 100,000. Shortly after Age of Conan launched, player levels peaked at an impressive 700,000.
This week the company launched the first ever re-evaluation campaign for the MMO. Anyone with a previously active account can now reactivate and play for two weeks, completely free of charge and with no strings attached.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com to discuss the move, game director Craig Morrison moved to reassure players concerned by the health of the game, and of Funcom itself.
“MMOs are a long-term investment,” he said. “Just last week Anarchy Online, the other MMO that we currently run live, celebrated its eighth birthday. I see Conan running for just as long, if not longer. These games, we’re in it for the long term. We as a company know how to run the games cost effectively in the long term. We’re a publicly traded company. Anyone who wants to look up our financial situation can see that the company is very sound and has a large amount of cash equity sitting there in the bank. We’ll be here for some time to come.”
When asked if the 100,000 subscriber estimate was accurate, Morrison replied: “I’m afraid I’m not allowed to answer that question. We’re a publicly listed company in Norway on the Oslo stock exchange. Subscriber numbers, we’re only allowed to communicate volumes through our financial quarterly reports. What I can say is we have seen very positive trends in both the subscriber and player online numbers since Christmas. We’re definitely progressing in the right direction and we’re very happy to see that positive progression starting to come after the issues that the game had after its launch last year.”
To reactivate a closed Age of Conan account head over to ageofconan.com.
