Age of Conan - Interviews @ Strategy Informer

Strategy Informer has interviewed Product Directer of Funcom Jørgen Tharaldsen about the in-development X360 version, the announced server merger and the success of Warhammer online. First something about the X360 version which won't see a release this year:

Development on the Xbox 360 version is not our key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game, and we rightly have the focus on them. While there is a dedicated specialist project team working on Xbox, the PC version will remain our top priority for now.

If anything I think that the console version is greatly benefiting from the many updates and improvements we are constantly making to the PC version, and the launch issues we had will only serve to make the Xbox version a much better experience. 

He answers a question on the recently announced merger of Age of Conan servers. For the welfare of the organism it seems:

I think that people who are playing Conan are actually very happy about the news, and indeed it’s been one of the most requested things from our playerbase. The essence of any MMO is the social experience, and right now people are spread out a bit too thin across the servers. The merge will hence improve the overall fun-factor, and will make it easier to team and fight with and against other players. 

In and by itself a server-merge won’t be a be-all end-all solution to get players, it’s not primarily a mechanism for that. It just helps to reinforce the fun and social factors for the many players in the game right now, which in itself is positive of course. 

Jørgen Tharaldsen is happy on behalf of Mythic's success with Warhammer Online, and doesn't fear the competition from WAR, Lich King or Mines of Moria:

Yeah, just like we were they too are storming out the gates in an insane tempo, and indeed they shipped an amazing amount of copies! I am happy for them, the MMO genre needs success stories besides WoW, and I think the two of us are the first MMOs after WoW to really do tremendously well in retail. Now that we are both live it will be interesting to see how it all pans out, and with Lich King coming soon, LOTRO expansion and many other additions to the genre there isn’t anything wrong with the amount of competition. Like it should be!

While we of course are playing WAR, like the other MMO games, they serve more as an inspiration than something to outright copy. On some things they have some nifty ideas, while on others they did not hit as well I think, just like with most gamesJ We have some definitive strengths in Funcom, and with Age of Conan, so the way for us forward is not to copy or clone, but to build on our strengths, and improve weaker points, and then use other games as inspiration. I am certain Age of Conan will be a quality contender in the fantasy space for many more years to come, but how well it eventually goes remains to be seen. I have high hopes!