More Age of Conan subscription incentives coming

October 29, 2009 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Age of Conan 

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, News items

2e11e_5437trwhi32486h23 More Age of Conan subscription incentives coming

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.

MassivelyMore 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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The MMO launch subscriber bubble

June 9, 2009 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Age of Conan 

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Age of Conan, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds, Star Wars: The Old Republic

99ae3_bubble-title2 The MMO launch subscriber bubble

It feels like a new MMO is being released every month these days and the market for persistent online games is certainly expanding. At the head of this market is a set of games commonly referred to “triple A” titles. These are popular games from big name studios or games using popular intellectual properties. New games that are considered “triple A” have a unique ability to build unparalleled levels of anticipation and hype around themselves prior to release. In order to draw in as many players as possible, an obscene amount of cash is often spent on advertising to hype these games up for release. But is this appropriate and cost-effective or does it show a fundamental misunderstanding of of the MMO market?

In this article, we look at what can go wrong with over-hyped MMO launches and what happens when the subscriber bubble bursts.

Continue reading The MMO launch subscriber bubble

MassivelyThe MMO launch subscriber bubble originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Age of Conan’s official developer blog resurrected

March 10, 2009 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Age of Conan 

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, News items

52a70_3rfaoce34 Age of Conans official developer blog resurrected

It’s been some time since Age of Conan had an active developer blog. In fact, looking at the calendar reveals that no such blog has existed since launch day back in May 2008. In all fairness, FunCom has been a little busy with bug fixing, balancing, content throughput and some fairly massive overhauls of game systems. Still, it’s nice to have a place for subscribers and interested onlookers to read up on the latest updates — especially since the stuff that’s been added back into the game really deserves some attention.

For the first post of the newly resurrected dev blog, FunCom’s Glen “Famine” Swan sticks with discussing the newest update and touches on the itemization overhaul coming up next. It’s a good start, but a post talking about the mistakes made pre-launch and corrections since then would be a wise choice, we think. It never hurts to cop to your mistakes, and then show how you resolved them.


Warhammer Online Coverage Having fun in Conan’s homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Age of Conan’s official developer blog resurrected originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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