They’re ”not sure we need saving,” says executive producer Craig Morrison. It’s already ”perfectly viable” but they won’t miss this chance to strut.
”First of all I’m not sure we need saving! We wouldn’t still be running the game with the size of team and the operation that we have if the game wasn’t perfectly viable, profitable and doing well,” said Funcom’s Morrison, in an interview with Eurogamer.
”We still have a sizeable team working on the game, we are still adding new content - we’ve added as much new content this year already as any of our other competitors and we’re only going to do more for the rest of the year.”
Already the studio has announced they’ve been working very closely with the feature film crew, sharing assets and bolstering one another. Age of Conan will see a whole new adventure pack released visiting areas and characters introduced in the movie.
”We really feel that 2011 is an opportunity to grow and get customers back with the attention from the movie and the new content and changes. We are in a position to take advantage this year,” continued Morrison. Funcom hasn’t seen all the film yet, but about 60% of it.
”We’ve never seen it as saving the game but as an opportunity to push the game.”
”It’s well known there was an awful lot of people that tried Age of Conan at launch that probably haven’t tried it since. It makes sense for us to invest so they can see how far it has come in the three years since it launched. It’s definitely an opportunity.”
It was ”always in the plan” to collaborate with Paradox on the Conan movie. ”Once they confirmed they were looking at the fall of this year we started on production. We were provided the script by Paradox and found how we could tie it in. It’s a challenge given that our game is set some 20 years after the events in the movie,” he explained.
Okay - the real question - Schwarzenegger’s Conan or newbie Jason Momoa?
”That will be an impossible question to answer! It’s going to be subjective for people of different ages and different types. I’m going to sit firmly on the fence with that one. Jason Momoa plays Conan really well and it fits with Howard’s original stories. They’ve done a really good job of translating that feeling onto the big screen.”
‘Conan the Barbarian’ releases in theatres this August. Age of Conan was once described as ‘steak and wine’ to World of Warcraft’s more ‘fast-food style’. A lot of the initial player base for the Conan MMO dropped off shortly after launch - Funcom wants them back.
