Age of Conan is a 2008 MMORPG in the setting of the Conan novels by author Robert E. Howard. It was popular when it was released, but today hardly anyone is interested in the game. What has become of it?
The MMORPG was developed by Funcom and released in 2008, subtitled Hyborian Adventures. It transports you to the world of Hyboria, Location of the Conan novels by author Robert E. Howard.
Age of Conan takes place in the harsh world of barbarians. You create a character and choose a class – rogue, mage, soldier or priest. In addition, there are 3 subclasses each, i.e. 12 in total.
You enter the huge game world, in which there is much to explore. You can also complete quests, craft or compete against each other in PvP.
Another special feature is the combat system, which places a lot of value on combos and action. The fights take place actively, whereby your attack direction is important. Opponents can be hit from different sides.
Since the fights look quite brutal and nudity plays a role in Age of Conan, the MMORPG received a USK age rating of 18+.
This is what Age of Conan looks like:
Popular at release, now forgotten
When Age of Conan was released on May 20, 2008, players had to purchase a subscription. According to the developers, over a million players did so at the time of release – it is therefore the largest MMO launch since World of Warcraft (via Wired).
Almost 15 years later, the number of players looks meager. During the peak of the last 24 hours, 78 players were online on Steam (via SteamDB). Add to that the players from Funcom’s own client, so it’s probably a bit more overall – but still very few for an MMORPG.
At release, the MMORPG was gigantic, but the success did not last long. Due to a lack of endgame content, too little content and bugs that were not fixed quickly enough, many players left Age of Conan. Neither PvP nor crafting would have worked properly.
In 2011, the developers then switched to a Free2Play model with an optional subscription and changed the nickname to “Unchained”. So you can play it for free, since 2013 also on Steam. However, there are severe limitations for Free2Play players:
Those who want to play for free can do so, but will progress more slowly and have to grind longer than players with a subscription.
The conversion ultimately did not help the MMORPG to great success. New content came too slowly for that and there were too many technical problems.
In the video you can see the 11-year-old trailer for Age of Conan: Unchained
Age of Conan: Unchained trailer
There hasn’t been an update since 2020
Looking at Age of Conan’s website, the MMORPG looks very dead. The last post under “What’s New” is from 2020, where Funcom announced an event for the 12th anniversary of the game. “It doesn’t get any updates, which is a shame,” writes one player in the reviews on Steam.
2020 also saw the last major update. It was called Onslaught and introduced a new area from the original 1933 short story Colossus. In it you will meet the magician Thugra Khotan, who wants to subdue the world. It also brought new quests, gear, and game modes.
Since then, Age of Conan: Unchained has been quiet. It still seems to have an active player base. A user named Gak wrote on Steam Reviews in December 2022: “The community is niche but loyal and passionate. There is no shortage of friendly players who are happy to help newcomers.”
For fans of old MMORPGs and Conan the Barbarian, it’s definitely worth checking out Age of Conan 15 years after its release. You probably won’t find many players there, and the graphics are logically outdated.
Have you ever played Age of Conan or are you still playing it? Should Funcom have gotten more out of the title? What do you think of the optional subscription model they introduced in 2011? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
The MMORPG Rift is also more and more forgotten:
Rift should be a big WoW killer – what happened to the MMORPG?