Age of Conan: Unchained: 'Not Going Anywhere' As Development Moves to North Carolina

SBFord

The latest Monthly Update from Age of Conan's Craig Morrison releases the news that development of the game will be continued by a centralized team in North Carolina. Some members of the AoC team will be moving on but Morrison assures players that AoC isn't going anywhere.

Obviously the recent news about studio re-structuring brings with it a whole host of questions about the future for Age of Conan. The good news is that the game won't be going anywhere and that development will be continued by a central team for all our titles based at our North Carolina studio.

Of course, this also means that some members of our current team will be moving on to new challenges while others will continue as part of the new central team which will continue forming quality updates for us. Our Raleigh studio already has most of our customer service, billing, quality assurance and community teams, so bringing the developers closer to them will be beneficial for a live game. The new shared pool of people is a very experienced, passionate and skilled team that I highly respect, with a continued passion for working on all three games.

Read the full letter on the Age of Conan site.

ignore_me

good. i fully plan to revisit this game.

Aeonblades

This game is a perfect example of how a shaky launch can hurt a game before it's time. This game has made leaps and bounds of improvements over the years, and I would recommend anyone give it a try, it has a pretty solid F2P option honestly compared to a lot of other games.

Grakulen

The letter from Funcom about all the games.

 

 

 

UPDATE ON THE ONGOING FUNCOM RESTRUCTURING PROCESS

Published on (2013-01-25)

 

– North Carolina office to house centralized development team for all three live MMOs, Montreal studio to focus on the development of mobile, tablet and new technology –

Raleigh, USA – January 25^th, 2012 – Funcom, a world leading independent developer and publisher of online games, today provided an update on the Company’s previously announced restructuring process. The restructuring is an important step in the long-planned implementation of the Company’s strategy of building smaller, high quality online games such as the upcoming LEGO® Minifigures game while at the same time continuing to support, service and expand its three successfully launched massively multiplayer games ‘The Secret World’, ‘Age of Conan’ and ‘Anarchy Online’.

Funcom announced last year that following the release of ‘The Secret World – which is the Company’s largest MMO project to date – that the Company would implement a strategy of developing smaller, high quality online games with more limited budgets and shorter production timelines. This would allow the Company to spread its investments and work on more games simultaneously. It has also been important for Funcom to make sure that the new strategy incorporates the continued support of the Company’s existing online games, which are all a vital part of its legacy as well as its future business.

As part of the restructuring Funcom is establishing a joint, centralized live team at its studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, whose primary responsibility will be expanding and enhancing the Company’s three live games and making sure the thriving community of loyal players receive the support they have come to expect after years of successful live operation. The centralized live team consists of many of the talented people that worked on those games previously, and it is Funcom’s ambition that each game will benefit from having a shared pool of skill, competence and creativity that makes up this highly experienced group of developers in the centralized, joint team in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The team in Montreal will work on currently unannounced projects for the tablet and mobile platforms, as well as continuing to improve and enhance Funcom’s own industry-leading Dreamworld technology.

The Dreamworld technology powers many of Funcom’s massively multiplayer online games, such as ‘The Secret World’ which was re-launched successfully in December to a buy-to-play business model. The move resulted in a 30% increase in overall sales and an increase in server activity of more than 400% as a result of many players returning to the myths and legends themed online game. The centralized live team will continue to build upon this success in the months to come.

“The live team in Raleigh, North Carolina, has up until today only housed our billing/tools, community, customer service, operations and quality assurance teams,” says Funcom CEO Ole Schreiner. “By bringing the developers on our live games to Raleigh it allows us to build a stronger, more unified team that can service and support our online games as they work to expand these worlds and create new experiences for the players who inhabit them. This will also allow us to have the team staying in Montreal focus exclusively on their new responsibilities of developing for tablets and mobile devices as well as working on new tech.”

The restructuring process includes a reduction in headcount at the Montreal studio among those who have not been relocated to Raleigh to be part of the centralized live team or who are not part of the new team which will be working with mobile, tablet and technology. As a natural result of the completion of the development on ‘The Secret World’, the Beijing studio, which primary responsibility was delivering art and animation to that project, will be closed down this year and the live team in Raleigh will be equipped with resources to produce visual assets for upcoming updates to the three live games. There has also been a staff reduction at the Raleigh studio in certain departments.

The restructuring process is still ongoing and Funcom will update the market on concrete numbers when the process has been finalized.

http://www.funcom.com/news/update_on_the_ongoing_funcom_restructuring_process

jtcgs

The best thing they could do for AoC is merge servers world wide and add a translation system. Right now the game is being kept afloat by European players which outnumber players around the world by a large margin.

Merging servers would greatly enhance the playing experience and make the game feel alive again, it would help new players want to stay longer.

Aeonblades

Originally posted by jtcgs

The best thing they could do for AoC is merge servers world wide and add a translation system. Right now the game is being kept afloat by European players which outnumber players around the world by a large margin.

Merging servers would greatly enhance the playing experience and make the game feel alive again, it would help new players want to stay longer.

Agreed wholeheartedly. This was the system that has kept FFXI successful for a long long time, have 1 set of servers and a translation system for basic phrases and grouping.

NorseGod

I'm interested in re-visiting in a month or two. I like playing off and on.

Heading in, I already know the problems I will have.

1. The population isn't as big as I normally like.

2. I can't bind keys to my mouse that I am currently using (Logitech G5) and not in a hurry to buy a new mouse that will work for AoC.

3. Way behind in AA on all my characters.

I don't foresee any other problems than those listed for me. Everything else is about the game is pretty good.

gaara168

hmmmm now there in my state interesting

Rawiz

"Not going anywhere"? No shit? This game has been going nowhere for years. It's basically a cashcow for other games.

Novendar

This is funny in a very sad way. Everyone I know from the AoC team are staying here in Montreal in hope to find new jobs instead of moving. So AoC lost its Senior Game  Designer, Senior Scripter and Senior Class Designer plus a lot more people.

 

Good luck to the rest of the team, but I sadly have the feeling Funcom might join THQ in oblivion soon.

 

Yizle

Originally posted by Rawiz
"Not going anywhere"? No shit? This game has been going nowhere for years. It's basically a cashcow for other games.

People been saying that for years about AO also.

Vyeth

Right smack dab in the home state.. I'd rather hear some news about Anarchy Online though..

DaSpack

Good stuff. So my game is getting more content. Btw, seem to be some kind of renesance going on for AoC. Lots of new players with the dragonspine content. Love the game. Look me up on Wiccana server.

neutrinoide

Come and join the fun in the Deathwish server !!! 

Souldrainer

Originally posted by jtcgs

The best thing they could do for AoC is merge servers world wide and add a translation system. Right now the game is being kept afloat by European players which outnumber players around the world by a large margin.Merging servers would greatly enhance the playing experience and make the game feel alive again, it would help new players want to stay longer.

 

That explains it. Countries where English is a second language do not have the same connection with REH's writings as the Americans who have access to the untranslated originals. Thus, Europeans don't quite understand how far off the mark AOC actually is... or maybe they don't care.

Volgore

"AoC not going anywhere" -he is right, AoC will never be going anywhere.

Theocritus

When a company is floundering like Funcom is nothing is safe...If someone high enough up says were pulling the plug on any one of these 3 games then it is over......And just because TSW is newer doesn't mean its a sure thing either....That game pretty much was the nail in the coffin for Funcom by falling so short of financial expectations.

jtcgs

Originally posted by Souldrainer

Originally posted by jtcgs

The best thing they could do for AoC is merge servers world wide and add a translation system. Right now the game is being kept afloat by European players which outnumber players around the world by a large margin.

Merging servers would greatly enhance the playing experience and make the game feel alive again, it would help new players want to stay longer.

 

That explains it. Countries where English is a second language do not have the same connection with REH's writings as the Americans who have access to the untranslated originals. Thus, Europeans don't quite understand how far off the mark AOC actually is... or maybe they don't care.

 Not true, Conan was huge in Europe due to its setting(Howard said he was based off of Celtic lore) and realism, its heavy sexual themes actually kept it from being as popular in America as it was in parts of Europe.

As for the game, its the same. In America it had an NC 17 rating because of the blood and...nipples. Those dont mean a thing in Europe.

kingsatanas

i enjoyed this hame for a while and i tried it again last year well its a very good game BUT i think funcom got too hard with this game i left AoC cause hard grouping and most of the new content are too hard so people get stick doing T1-T2 raid same as 4year ago XD if they really want to make people want to play this game they really need to add some nerf in some instance and raid...... and i played a lot of mmorpg and AoC is still the hardest one i ever tried.

 

Shadanwolf

It's sad to see.This is a good pve game.Stunning graphics...just stunning.

Why the wasting away of the company ? The reasons  for me....

...the company's not delivering what it said it was going to .....caught up with it

---ANARCHY's horrendous lunch

---AOC's horrendous launch

---Failure to be able to master the technical aspects of signifigant sized groups fighting for a battlekeep

---failure to deliver a great crafting system...or even one that functioned properly with their poor design(a redesign has meen "in the works" for about two years)

--failure to copy or understand  the design of great faction vs faction or even guild vs guild conflict

---failure to provisde minimal customer support for many years( though my last experience was excellent)

--failure to provide world class design for the faction vs faction conflict in Sectet World.

 

I wish all this wasen't so. I bought the collectors edition of AOC. I was a believer. Now I don't believe.I wish that what I have seen wasen't so.I wish I wanted to play the game  right now.

 

 

 

 

Rthuth434

"not going anywhere" means shut down in 2 months, just like "not going f2p anytime soon" means f2p in 2 months.

mCalvert

No, the best thing they could do is develop it into a 100% hardcore PVP game. Keep all the PVE stuff as is, but design new zones devoted to hardcore PVP, like GW2.

Tuchaka

ya that's the problem AoC never went anywhere and either will the secret world

FromHell

AoC 4.0 is freakin' amazing, recently rediscovered this game, incredibly deep, huge world, really huge. Very immersive

Looks incredible with a current  graphics card. Can't believe how anyone was able to play this on highest settings in 2009.

After Tortage the game world is overwhelming. Pretty good player activity as well. Great stories, lots of fun.

Violent, bloody, beheadings, boobs...

And btw: holy cow open world PvP kicks ***, so do the minigames/warzones.

Guild cities.. resource gathering, mounts, horse riding, mounted combat, sieges, so much to do. 

rated "M", this is for adults 

No, you can't  play a cutesy pet race with big teddybear eyes.. thank god

Darkcrystal

The issue is not just the games its the people that play them, todays gamers expect everything for free and want it there way andf only for them, not all gamers but alot, read alot  of posts and I see this alot.

 

Drives me crazy how people have ruined MMo's with this attitude, find a new hobby or STFU.,

mmorpho

I had to wait a few years to finally try this game. Firstly because the download is huge (I have unlimited downloads now), and secondly because my computer was crap. Now that those issues are no more, I'm enjoying this game. At first I thought it was meh, but then I cranked up the graphics and was blown away. So far I like the quests and exploring the world. Thankfully you don't start off killing rats to level up. It's my favourite fantasy themed MMO that I've tried in the last little while (compared to Warhammer Online, D&D Online, LOTR Online).

I hope this game doesn't disappear anytime soon!!!