Funcom Fires First Shot In “MMOWars 2008″
By 
Hib in
Age of Conan, Funcom, features on
January 17th, 2008
Funcom has finally announced the release date for Age Of Conan…March 25. After being pushed into 2008 last year (along with EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online), it’s the first of the remaining “WoW-Killers” to set a release date. The most EA Mythic has said about WAR is that it will be released “sometime in the second quarter of 2008″, which would put it in the April to June range for release, well behind AoC.
What will be interesting is to see what, if any, reaction to this announcement comes from the WAR party. Personally, I’m squarely on the side of “It doesn’t matter which game releases first…the one I have the most fun playing is the one I’ll subscribe to,” and release date isn’t really a factor. However, consider it from the business angle
If WAR feels that AoC could possibly lock down a large segment of potential subscribers, they may feel they need to launch before AoC if possible.
If EA Mythic feels that AoC isn’t going to grab any significant portion of the gamer population, they won’t care and will continue to work toward a Q2 release, figuring people will have grown ready to try something new one to three months after they started Conan.
If EA Mythic doesn’t give two hoots in a whorehouse because they think the only way to have a successful launch is to make sure the game is finished before launching, they’ll continue on their current plan, possibly even pushing the game back to Q3 if they feel it’s necessary.
Of course, the same list of potential effects applies to Funcom as well in this case…in reverse.
In my opinion, the third option is the only one that will ultimately work for WAR. Games that wait until they are finished products before they launch are the ones that show the most success. The age of “we’ll fix it after launch” is drawing to a close, due in large part to the sheer number of options gamers have to turn to for their MMORPG fun. Rushing the final production stages just to get the game on the shelves based on some arbitrary release-date is not the recipe’ for making a good first impression, and in quite a few cases that’s the only impression you get the chance to make.
Don’t believe me? Know anyone that’s given Vanguard another try after SOE took control and reportedly improved performance and started fixing more bugs than Paris Hilton’s gynecologist? Yeah…small list, isn’t it?
And we can’t forget that there’s always the possibility that EA Mythic has always intended to be ready for a Q2 launch, and was waiting a while to see what Funcom would announce before announcing their street date.
It’ll be interesting to see what (if any) reaction to this announcement comes from EA Mythic. My personal bet…we’ll hear something from them within the next five business days.
Only time will tell. But ultimately, no matter how many release-date games are played, both games’ success will come down to “Which game is the most fun?”, and that’s the way it should be.
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January 17th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
AoC will do very well and this is why:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk872rmB7_g
This game must be great if it looks and plays this good with youtube compression.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Way to stay on top of that breaking news from AUGUST 10th 2007. Yep, that’s right FIVE MONTHS after Funcom annouced the delay of AoC from October 31st ‘07, to March 25th, 2008, and you are just catching on now?
Funcom “finally annouced the release date” or you finally realize it, and report it 5 months later as if it is new news. Interesting topic for a blog, but frankly, very little credibility for someones opinion who tries to pass of something as fact which simply isnt. Makes one wonder if you really have a clue what you are talking about.
Here’s the news release from last August so you can inform yourself:
http://www.funcom.com/wsp/funcom/frontend.cgi?session=lfxrf9hgh1aki2e9wu3suscj7ei2l8&func=publish.show&func_id=1230&table=CONTENT&item=1004
January 17th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
WAR originally had a release date of ….March 31st…..THEN back in August Conan pushed back from OCT to March 25th…coincidence? I think not…..THEN WAR pushed back to infinity…..they dont know when they will release and I have a good idea why. EA…sure the press release said EA would just be publishing it and Mythic would still control the developement….right…………
So, with the beta breaches that have been popping over the net, AoC will have a good set client base, and could actually push back another 3 months if they wanted and still beat WAR out the door. I am going off of the leaks from both….and the fact that it is never a good thing to have to shut the beta down, that means some major rehauling to be done.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Pain: I agree…I think it’ll be a big success for Funcom. It should be huge, as much for it’s innovations as for its graphics. It’s trying some new things, and it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Zman: Yes, that was what the original unpublished article was going to address (I wrote it last year), but I had saved it earlier only half-edited and corrected. But I agree…when you have to shut down a beta, that is not a good sign. Usually. They gave a good reason for it, however…it remains to be seen if it was indeed to “allow them to analyze the data and restructure the beta” or more of an “Oh crap!” event. Only time will tell.
Get Real: Yep, you’re right. It’s a mistake, and a big one. (For the record, this post was written but not supposed to go onto the site…I thank my thumb-fingered attempt at “pre-scheduling” a post in Wordpress…not that that is any excuse.)
Now, let me point something out. I could have very easily deleted this post after I realized it had published to the site when I didn’t want it to, or edited it and deleted your comment. However, this was after it had already been read by quite a few people, and also after you had written your comment pointing out that I’m an idiot.
Right or wrong, I don’t hide from what happens on this blog, and at times I am, indeed, an idiot. Unintended or not, it was a screw-up of epic proportions, and for that I apologize to all who read this. However, I don’t believe in the entire concept of “anonymous courage”. If I screw up, I admit it, and you know who did it…the lead (and only) idiot here…me.
Thanks for the heads-up, “Get Real”, even though I had already realized my error, said “Whew, I’m glad that’s not on the site yet,” and came to the site to fix it where I found it already up, along with your comment, and developed a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I appreciate your time.
Dave “Inhibitor” Hughes
January 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Btw, you’re a very good writer. Feel free to delve into a few of essay assignments
I’d rather game 
January 20th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I personnaly think AoC will be a HUGE failure. Funcom is known for failure. And WAR beta was shut down, because they were fixing bugs. In my opinion WAR will be the better game, and thats what I will play(unless AoC is magically more fun)
January 21st, 2008 at 4:21 pm
WAR’s date was never March 31st. They never set a date, it was only Q1 or “Early 2008.” The beta was also shut down as planned, it’s nothing new if you know Mythic’s history. Just wanted to clear that up.
AoC looks interesting, yes, but personally WAR looks more fun. I was going to just play AoC until WAR came out, but now that AoC was delayed again I don’t know if the timing will still work out. I might just have to skip it altogether now if it releases too closely to WAR. Maybe The Chronicles of Spellborn can tide me over now…