Funcom offers prizes for friends and followers
Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Contests, The Secret World
Tis the season for getting cool things — and for making new friends. Funcom obviously agrees, as they’ve got a contest going where they’ll be giving away some pretty nice prizes for people who become friends, fans, or followers on their various Facebook and Twitter accounts. The idea is pretty simple: for every one of the Funcom accounts you link up with, you’ll be entered in the drawing for prizes. So, with two accounts each for Age of Conan, Anarchy Online The Secret World, as well as for Funcom in general, there are 8 different ways you could land some sweet swag.
Among the prizes for this giveaway are free game time; beta access to Age of Conan’s next expansion, Rise of the Godslayer; a guaranteed spot in hotly anticipated The Secret World beta test; in-game items for Age of Conan and Anarchy Online; and “much, much more” according to their information. With Rhode Island and Florida excluded from the ranks (that pesky “must buy a bond for your prizes” thing we’re sure) most everyone else can enter for a chance to score some sweet Funcom goodies. If you’re looking for where exactly to link up your accounts, they’ve even listed the links on the Age of Conan site, making the clicky-clicky that much easier. Just make sure you’ve joined up before January 4th, 2010 when the contest ends. Good luck!
Funcom offers prizes for friends and followers originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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More Age of Conan subscription incentives coming
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, News items
Funcom’s Erling Ellingsen recently informed Eurogamer about future Age of Conan subscription “initiatives” being planned, which are to follow the new price reduction of multi-month subscriptions . It’s of particular interest that Funcom is planning further pricing specials, as they’ve been doing a lot to bring players back to the game ever since launch. Should their efforts pay off, it’s likely that The Secret World will see a significant development boost, which is something we’d be very happy about as fans of Ragnar Tornquist.
However, nobody knows yet if the current “initiatives” have been helping, as Erling wasn’t able to comment on current numbers. So until some hard numbers come in — hopefully of the positive nature — it’s anybody’s guess on how the game will perform. It’s possible that there’s a free-to-play model in the game’s future, especially since it wouldn’t be the first time a Funcom game has gone that route. However, only time will tell where King Conan and his followers end up.
More Age of Conan subscription incentives coming originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Free to play an option for Age of Conan
Filed under: Age of Conan, Interviews, News items
It would appear that for Funcom, going the way of free-to-play with Age of Conan isn’t entirely off the table. At least so says Erling Ellingson in a recent interview with IncGamers. There’s certainly a precedent with Anarchy Online having gone that route long ago and its director — at that time — was also Craig Morrison. So really, all bets are off on this one.
Still, for the time being subscription remains the primary method of play. Our guess? Funcom is probably waiting for the first expansion or two before opening the original game for free to play access, much like they did with Anarchy Online. So if anything, this probably won’t be happening for a couple more years. That is, unless things rapidly go south for the Norwegian games developer. But with The Secret World looking quite interesting. they’ve got a good chance at making a comeback.
[via MMORPG]
Free to play an option for Age of Conan originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Funcom’s Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, The Secret World, Casual
Funcom has released a report detailing their financials for the first quarter of 2009. They brought in over US$7 million in revenue for the period, and although this figure is slightly less than the previous quarter (but without the disastrous US$23 million depreciation loss), they are pleased with the stability of their earnings during the economic turbulence of recent times. The report also mentions some positive trends in their flagship game Age of Conan:
- Longer average subscription periods, demonstrating customer loyalty
- The number of new customers per month is much higher than Q4 ‘08 (the introduction of free trials helped here)
- A solid and stable customer base for the quarter
- Higher levels of activity in game than in previous periods
Not to be left out, The Secret World made it into the report as well, mostly just to say that the recent reveal was well-received, and the project is on track. Anarchy Online only really had a one-line entry in the report, and it was to say that revenues from the game were slowly declining. The casual and free-to-play games that Funcom referred to in their Q4 ‘08 report are also keeping to their development schedules — the screenshot above is from a java-based MMO that is currently in the focus-testing and gameplay tweaking stages. For now though, with TSW and the other casual games still on the horizon, the overall success of Q2 ‘09 will once again hinge on the performance of AoC.
Funcom’s Q1 2009 report shows solid revenue originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 16 May 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Funcom goes bi-coastal this year at conventions
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Events, real-world, News items
If you’re an ardent follower of Age of Conan, or perhaps one of the folks still spending time in Anarchy Online, then it looks like you’ve got a choice of conventions to attend this Labor Day weekend! Funcom has announced that not only will they be returning to their regular East coast convention haunt, Dragon*Con, as part of the MMO track - they’ll also be expanding their travel this year to hang out with the gamers at PAX as well!
While there’s no specifics as yet as to what they’ll be doing with their communities at each convention, we can tell you from personal experience that Funcom throws good parties and has some pretty interesting panels. So, if either one of these two conventions is on your travel agenda, be sure to pop by and say hello to the Funcom teams.
Funcom goes bi-coastal this year at conventions originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Massively goes to Dragon*Con: Funcom Q&A
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Massively Event Coverage
Funcom was on-hand at this year’s Dragon*Con, where they held a Q&A session regarding all things Age of Conan. What follows is as much of the event as could be transcribed from the audio we brought back with us. This writeup was completed based on audio with some garbled sections. Some details may be glossed over as a result. Without further ado:
Q: Any plans to merge the servers?
A: No. What we have looked at is ways of letting people play across servers, but we haven’t made any plans to merge servers.
Working with the tradeskill guys a lot lately and the resource team and we’re designing new quests and areas for resource gathering and building and things like that. Tower objectives and so forth, they’re the next step with the battlekeep system, so I work with the action dynamic team, who are the guys who do the massive PvP and Siegeing. Our first priority at the moment is to get 48v48 sieges running perfectly for everybody. Second priority is to get the next step out, which is Towers, so the guys are working on it.
Continue reading Massively goes to Dragon*Con: Funcom Q&A
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Funcom announces its Dragon*Con plans
Filed under: Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, Events, real-world, New titles, News items, The Secret World
The company will have its own booth, of course, which will be open from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM Friday through Sunday, and from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Monday. More interestingly, though, Funcom will be hosting what it calls the “FunCon Event” in the Sheraton Capital Ballroom on Friday at 10:00 PM. The party will feature music by DJ Tarryk and visitors from the teams of all three Funcom projects.
The following day, Funcom will present its two currently-released games — Anarchy Online at 10:00 AM and Age of Conan at 7:00 PM. Somewhere amidst all these proceedings, fans will have the opportunity to win posters, inflatable swords, t-shirts, lanyards, custom PC cases, and “one special customized Anarchy Online PC.” That’s cool. It’s probably not cool enough to go out of your way to go to Dragon*Con for, but if you’re already gonna be there you might as well stop by. Check out Massively’s complete Dragon*Con schedule for other events and booths to hit up, too.
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