Age of Conan

Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan will pass the astounding “One Million Copies Shipped” milestone, in less than three weeks after the launch of the game. Due to overwhelming demand Funcom’s retail partner is now re-supplying retail boxes rapidly while also including new markets to the mix. As a result of the tremendous interest from gamers, Age of Conan has for the past few weeks been claiming number one spots on the sales charts across the western world – including the US, Germany, France and the UK – while receiving glowing review scores from gaming media.

To celebrate the release of the Age of Conan soundtrack (now available on iTunes), we are pleased to present this interview with our composer, Knut Avenstroup Haugen, covering the entire process of putting together the soundtrack, his background, and what goes into all of the exciting tracks you hear in the world of Hyboria.

What is your name and what do you do for Age of Conan?

My name is Knut Avenstroup Haugen and I create all the music in the game.

What is your musical background? Outside of Age of Conan, where would we have seen your work?

Funcom is proud to announce that the Collector’s Edition of Age of Conan is now completely sold out in all markets. The exclusive edition was announced in January, and has since topped retail charts at numerous retailers. In some markets, the Collector’s Edition has been sold out for weeks, and as a result additional boxes were made. These are also sold out, and the total print run stands at 111.000 units. Lucky customers may still find some copies on retail shelves, but no re-orders are available.

Durham, USA – June 2, 2008 – Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan rises to number 1 on the PC charts, and the game even competes very well on the all-format lists. The normal edition is now sold out in many outlets due to the initial success of the game, and Funcom aims to resupply new boxes as fast as possible. With more than half a million customers, Age of Conan is already one of the biggest ever western MMO games, and this happens just a week after launch.

Source : KillTenRats.com

As many of you know I was in the AoC beta where I only managed to get to lev 15 or so with my barbarian, but since last Thursday, when I finally managed to get a copy of the game, I’ve been battling it out in Hyborian and currently have a lev 20 Demonologist. So I thought I’d give you guys my thoughts on the game so far.

Good evening, Hyboria, are you ready to rock!

To the delight of the Age of Conan development and community support team, a German metal band by the name of Linkin Purpz has produced a song all about, well, how much they love playing Age of Conan. Entitled Gods of War, it appears to be a melodic rant about the three principal deities of AoC, namely Mitra, Crom and Set, and how each of them is (or isn't) willing to aid their worshippers. The growling lyrics probably lose something in the translation from the original German:

Too much gods to choose
How will they help you out

Late into the US holiday weekend, I was finally able to register/activate my game code so that I could play Age of Conan (AoC). I quickly found out that my inability to register wasn’t going to be

my only problem.

Like a damsel in distress, MMO players have been held captive by game openings that have relied heavily, much too heavily, on bounty quests of the "Kill twenty of these and then come back to me" variety.

Trapped in chains of tedium, experienced players blitz through early levels to get to the point where something interesting starts to happen while gamers new to the genre often wonder why anyone bothers to play these games

before they quit from boredom. At least that's the way it used to be.

According to Michael Zenke from Massively, Age of Conan has sold 400,000 copies, out of 700,000 boxes they put on the shelves. Not bad for the first week. And, kudos to Funcom, the release launch went a lot smoother than the beta or early access. The reception of AoC in the blogosphere was a mixed. Keen and Graev already cancelled their accounts again. Tipa from West Karana sees AoC challenging WoW. The Ancient Gaming Noob correctly points out that "MMOs are a long haul proposition" and reserves judgement until having played it more.

It is time, once again, to poll the minds and hearts of our readership and answer their most burning questions.

First up, a mysterious crate marked "Courtesy of Our Friends At Mongoose Publishing" washed up on the beach at Kalanthes' feet. Inside, he found three books:

* Conan: Hyboria's Fallen: Pirates, Thieves, And Temptresses
* Conan: Tales of the Black Kingdoms

The next Clan of Conan newsletter is finally here, and as promised by Jřrgen Tharaldsen in a recent forum post, it goes a long way towards clearing up some Age of Conan pre-order confusion.

First things first, the 3-day early access: the newsletter confirms that this is exclusively for pre-orders, and that your retailer should provide you with an early-access key. However, to actually get that head start, you'll

- Pre-order programs now available in all Western territories - Get three day head-start in Hyboria -

15,000 gamers get exclusive Age of Conan access from April 18th to April 20th –

Age of Conan developers took a video while working on the in-game character select screen. Figuring that it was pretty cool to look at, they have released the video for viewing pleasure.
Here's what they have to say about it:

Every now and then, we rummage around and find some cool stuff on the way, and we just can't resist sharing it.