Funcom and Eidos have announced that more than 100,000 gamers signed up for the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Beta test over the Easter weekend.

Durham, USA - April 11th, 2007 - Funcom and Eidos announce that more than 100.000 gamers signed up for the 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' Beta test over the Easter holiday. Just within the first 24 hours of the announcement more than 50.000 gamers signed up to test the game. Despite a demanding sign-up process the initial numbers bodes very well for the future of the most savage, sexy and action-packed MMO ever created. "We're naturally very pleased to see that so many dedicated gamers are signing up for the 'Age of Conan' Beta at such a rapid pace," says Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. "With more than 100,000 gamers signed up in such a short time-frame our confidence in the game's potential and its ability to be a major contender in the MMO genre continues to be strengthened."

Read the full article here.

Let me be the first to say "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"  too much competition.

Still not like its a record.  Granted its very impressive.

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

That is only true if the game ends up sucking.  A large beta tester community, especially in Open Beta, that has a very positive response can be HUGE for a game.  In fact, come to think of it... I remember a game like that a few years back.  I had not even thought about playing it until some friends of friends mentioned some Open Beta that they really enjoyed... so I downloaded some game called World of Warcraft.

Good word of mouth in the Online community is HUGE for MMO's, so 100,000 happy beta testers could easily lead to 1,000,000 subscribers. Of course, 100,000 un-happy testers could have the opposite affect.  But, saying that 100,000 testers means "squat" is just... silly.

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

Beta testing has a lot of appeal to 'real' players who are excited about a game and want to make it the best game available when it is released by offering constructive criticism, bug reports and technical responses. Im assuming the vocal minority you are referring to are the people who came out of the NDA and announced how crap Vanguard and Dungeons and Dragons Online were? Well those games were crap, they didnt listen to anything the testers said and they got a pile of crap released to commemorate it. Both games have improved over time, but they lost the chance to impress. Once bitten, twice shy.

Originally posted by satanoclause
Did anyone get a reply from funcom yet? I signed up and it said I would get some kind of reply via email which I didn't receive....hmmm.
I can't wait for October either way  : )

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

Originally posted by Kyleran
I considered signing up..but I really don't like beta testing games...at least not until they are in the final stages like an Open beta.  I can't stand leveling up characters knowing they will be wiped soon.... 

I decided not to waste a spot that another person might really enjoy being part of.

your missing the point of beta. Beta is not a trial to lvl characters, its a CRUCIAL step to find bugs and report them no matter how small they are. It is the bets chance for a smooth launch before exploits and game beaking bugs get inside the launch. Vanguard released early before this could really be done well, hence a huge majority of bugs and exploits at launch( not saying theres lots of bugs now, I play vg its fun blah blah blah).

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

Originally posted by alyndale

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

A number is just a number...show me the money!

Let's see what happens at release, when, next year maybe?

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by alyndale

Originally posted by mindspat

Beta testing sign-ups don't mean squat in terms of potential success of a development project.  Then there's an allusive 80% who want to be c001 and brag about being a "beta tester".  What about the vocal minority who thrives on the anonymity of the internet and proceeds to use this access as a means to berate the developers and whine about everything being "cr4p" and " should do it this way..."

Opening Beta Testing has limited appeal to the real people who're going to buy this game. 

A number is just a number...show me the money!

Let's see what happens at release, when, next year maybe?

Uh if you bothered to read the release or follow Conan at all you would know it is being released 30th October this year.

How many games have you watched and seen the intial release date come and go?

 (<--he is only here cause he is funny)