Estimates at below 100k subs

[Venkman]

In an article about financials which included references to the earlier resignation of a co-founder and the server consoldation from 49 to 18.

Extract:

While Funcom's cash position remains robust at USD 39.4 million, the company reported a full-year net loss of USD 33.8 million. According to estimates by DnB NOR Markets, subscriber levels for Age of Conan are below 100,000, reports E24.

However, revenues in the fourth quarter of 2008 rose to USD 8.7 million, up from USD 1.2 million year-on-year, due to subscription revenues from the MMO.

Shortly after Age of Conan launched, Funcom saw subscriber levels of 400,000, which rocketed up to 700,000 within a few months.

[Threash]

Wouldn't they be talking shutdown at this point if it was so bad?

[Lantyssa]

They're not US based.  There may not be the same benefits from shuttering an MMO to them as there are to keep it running as best they can.

It's not as if AO had a huge crowd, and maybe they're looking towards their neighbors at CCP with EVE.

[shiznitz]

It has been said before but if they fixed itemization so it made sense and changed the inventory screen from that horrible UI where a bottle and a shield take up the same space, I MIGHT come back.

[tkinnun0]

If they changed to a Diablo-like tetris-inventory I would never come back. At the moment I'm just waiting to hear that they've polished their quest progression in levels 20-80 to be as good as levels 1-20.

[Shatter]

I tried the game again a few weeks ago and it has alot of the same end game issues as when it went live, which is basically nothing to do at 80.  Itemization definitely needs fixing, but what do you do at 80 if you arent in a raid guild?  Even if you are in a raid guild there are limited dungeons to even do period.  Fixing itemization is 1 good fix but they need to add a major end game xpac, then I would consider it again. 

[Sky]

I kinda wish SOE would add this to the Station Pass 

[Falconeer]

Why don't you people understand that this game is goooooooood! Dammit!

/nerdrage

[Lantyssa]

Because it's not $15 a month goooooooood when I've got other things to play!

[Tale]

Extract:

While Funcom's cash position remains robust at USD 39.4 million, the company reported a full-year net loss of USD 33.8 million. According to estimates by DnB NOR Markets, subscriber levels for Age of Conan are below 100,000, reports E24.

Straight to the source and Google translate: E24.

"Age of Conan Funcom sends in less juicy."

[Tale]

The barriers to entry are ridiculous. I reinstalled it and so far the patch downloader is currently on its THIRD GIGABYTE of patches. There could be more after that. And there's nowhere else to download them except the patcher.

The patcher got interrupted with 500Mb to go when a motherboard utility froze the machine. Instead of clearly resuming the download, the patcher now says it is downloading a 500Mb patch. I have no idea whether this is a different patch, or the final 500Mb of the interrupted patch, or what's going to happen when this finishes.

Note to Funcom and the people who like this game: impenetrable fortresses are not good shopfronts.

[Tale]

It did turn out to be the final 500Mb. Now there's a new problem.

Reactivated my account and it says:
Account status: Open
Playable: Playable

When I try to login I get "Account Frozen. use the Manage Account button for information on how to reactivate your account or add more gametime. (23)".

"Fuck off, we don't want customers" x2.

[Xuri]

Not sure if the issue you're experiencing is the same, but it apparently takes some time (tm) for the servers to actually recognize people's accounts as "Open and Playable" after activation/re-activation. :(
I don't know how long ago you activated yours, but if it has been less than an hour, you should try again after the hour-mark has passed.

[Tale]

Not sure if the issue you're experiencing is the same, but it apparently takes some time (tm) for the servers to actually recognize people's accounts as "Open and Playable" after activation/re-activation. :(
I don't know how long ago you activated yours, but if it has been less than an hour, you should try again after the hour-mark has passed.

Yes, that's what happened. Surely it's not hard to tell the customer this at the point of activation? Also a certain game handling 11.5 million accounts requires no time (tm).

[shiznitz]

Not sure if the issue you're experiencing is the same, but it apparently takes some time (tm) for the servers to actually recognize people's accounts as "Open and Playable" after activation/re-activation. :(
I don't know how long ago you activated yours, but if it has been less than an hour, you should try again after the hour-mark has passed.

Yes, that's what happened. Surely it's not hard to tell the customer this at the point of activation? Also a certain game handling 11.5 million accounts requires no time (tm).

This is why the MMOG industry never learns. You got two "fuck you"s and yet you kept going.  Most of us are guilty of this.

[Tale]

I had to keep going after the download "fuck you" because in Australia internet accounts are download-charged. I pay for a 25Gb/month account and I spent 3Gb of it patching this. Had to get my money's worth.

I had to keep going after the account "fuck you" because I had just paid to reactivate. Wanted my money's worth.

But I put the account into a cancelled state again, as soon as it activated.

[Falconeer]

So what's the verdict? OMG! It's so brown WoW is better damn Failcom they don't know shit zomgcopter suxx suxx combat is old pvp is gankfest i quit dammit I quit?

[Tale]

You want a verdict on a MMORPG after two days?

So far I didn't notice any difference between the last time I played it and now. Same game. I stopped at level 42 on a PvE server during the AoC boom due to lack of time, always meant to play again, but everybody quit the game before I had a chance. We picked the server thinking the ruleset would provide PvP without the stupid, but this has become a game where PvP servers are better. You'll want me to go back and start at level 1 again on a more populated server, which would kind of suck.

Haven't played WoW for two years. Except for a few hours where I tried WotLK and thought "same old, same old". I reinstalled AoC on the weekend because I was sick at home and going stir crazy, but any future playing time depends on real life workload.

[Falconeer]

Sorry Tale I got it wrong. I read the last line of your message as if you canceled/uninstalled just right after getting in (I got it right now).

[Der Helm]

There is still no free trial. right ?

[Falconeer]

Nope, free trials and comeback programmes will be activated with the next path, most likely in May.