Will Warhammer be the death knell of Age of Conan?

Mark Jacobs thinks he needs 500k subscribers to keep War profitable.  Numbers of subs to AoC are being flaunted at 400k - I think this is garbage personally, and is more likely in the 300k range.

My feeling is War will take half of what they have now, leaving them with 150k - 200k subs.

On those numbers, I don't think it can survive.

Q:  How many players will AoC lose to WAR?

A:  The rest of them.

That figure was as of end of July. I really don't think they have maintaied that.

I think as with most new games there will be an initial rush of people wanting to try out what is another long awaited title - but it will of course settle out after a while.

I think part of the problem facing any game these days is to attract the numbers it requires to keep going in the face of so much competition. (just take a look at the number of games presently in the game list).

And of course it wont just be AoC players who make the switch.

Personally, I'd like to give WAR a try at some point, but for now it doesn't look to be what I'm looking for in a game. I'll wait awhile yet.

Besides, I'm a happy AoC player at the present time :)

They are going to get reamed by the WAR release.

IMO, they'll lose 60% - 80% of what they have remaining.  FunCom has become the new Flagship Studios. 

Honestly, based on all of the dishonesty and flat out lying to the players by FC, I have no problem watching FC burn.

AoC still has players?? lol jk

I won't make any guesses, that's a hard question to answer. You have to first ask why those who are playing enjoy AOC. Secondly, why would they bother to play right now considering WAR is right around the corner (if they plan to play WAR). Features the two games offer differ greatly. Graphically they are worlds apart, the same goes for the atmosphere.

I would guess anyone who disliked AOC because of its flaws or lack of content, would have quit by now. /shrug

Probably alot.. I think your estimates are accurate. The last time I visited the official forums, almost every thread in the off-topic section was a WAR roll-call or discussion thread.. I've never wished ill for AoC, but I think it's safe to say that Warhammer will severely cripple the game. Server merges, dev layoffs.. it's very possible.

AoC will not lose any(more) players to WAR....

why?... because the only people left playing AoC are brainwashed followers of FunCom chanting "boobs boobs boobs" until FunCom tells them to stop...

fact: AoC has only fanbois left.... they are blind and wont leave for WAR....

Originally posted by mscouts77

AoC will not lose any(more) players to WAR....

.............................................................

 

With all due respect, I couldn't care less about mature content. It has no bearing on game play.

I'd also like to know how you came to your factual conclusions. They're a little close to baiting IMO, however I'm not going to bite.

Instead I'll respectively kind of agree, not with the terms given though. I'd consider myself a bigger fan of AOC than WAR at this point for sure. However, I'm definitely not blind to what I just paid for this weekend. My decision had nothing to do with having faith in anything Funcom has said or done. It was based on the amount of coherant information floating around.The term blindly is a suitable description though, honestly I had no clue what to expect at this point.

What I discovered is, exactly what i thought I would though. Everything you read has a certain amount of truth to it. From fans to haters it's all kinda true. yet often exagerated. Improvements have been made, yet the extent is both under and over exagerated from both sides. At this point I'd give them a moderate score on stability, compared to very poor at the last point I played.

Originally posted by Skooma2

Q:  How many players will AoC lose to WAR?

A:  The rest of them.

minus 1, ill play both

5

Originally posted by Spaceweed10

Will Warhammer be the death knell of Age of Conan?

Mark Jacobs thinks he needs 500k subscribers to keep War profitable.  Numbers of subs to AoC are being flaunted at 400k - I think this is garbage personally, and is more likely in the 300k range.

My feeling is War will take half of what they have now, leaving them with 150k - 200k subs.

On those numbers, I don't think it can survive.

I think that the game has about 200k active subs right now so it will be very few left on launch day.

Some people will play AoC no matter what happens to it of how Funcom treats them. Personally i found the game to be the most buggy and most boring MMO I had ever palyed, unfortunate since I had high hopes for the AoC.

Overall I would say the cancellation numbers for August through Sept will be pretty high.
 

The guild I was in when AoC launched  with 25-30 of us (played many games together) of those only 3-4 are still playing Conan. All of us including the 3-4 playing Conan are going to War starting this weekend for the OB. After most of us quit AoC  the few that were left in Conan merged with another guild that had 35 or so players. Since preview weekend that guild has quit playing other than 2 or 3 people which plan on staying in AoC.

So from what I have seen subscriptions for AoC are liking pretty dismal unless War falls on its face. From what I saw in preview I dont think that is going to happen though but I didnt think AoC would be the massive disaster it is either when I started playing it, only time will tell.

Would guess AoC have maybe 300k subscribers now the way Funcom counts subscribers. Maybe 200k of those actually login to play a few hours. I'm guessing many of those 200k will try out WAR cause they are looking for a good PVP game and I'm guessing at least 50k of those will switch to WAR and either stick with WAR or quit both games.

In the beginning of 2009 I think AoC will drop under 100k subscribers and from there on I dont know if the game will be shut down or get some form of life support.

You guys talk as if only one MMO can be running at a time. Again, lack of perspective.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

You guys talk as if only one MMO can be running at a time. Again, lack of perspective.

on my server we had a raid/group pvp alliance..so i had access to multiple guilds ventrilo accounts. i occasionally drop by to see if they are enjoying a patch or if anything has been fixed that was vital. pretty much every guilds vent is dwindling except one...yet they are ALL annoyed with the direction things have been going, most of them are about to quit, but want to give this upcoming patch a chance to prove itself.  and these people are the hardcore fanboys of the server, they aren't posting rants on forums...they are just tired of being bored. i've been watching your posts and i think you might want to examine your lack of perspective. it might not be as bad as some people make it out to be...but it's most certainly not good

On the EU forums it seems alot;

http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=89912

http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=79826

Both on frontpage off topic.

I'm no expert on War, But what Ive seen of it, its more a threat to WoW than AoC. And why is that? because its seems to be just another WoW v2. I do play AoC, and so far I have no intention of stopping.

But yes Funcom needs to fix alot in the game.

What I like with AoC is that its a different breed, especially in the graphical department and that it had no elfs nor dwarfs.

Originally posted by GenRabbit

I'm no expert on War, But what Ive seen of it, its more a threat to WoW than AoC. And why is that? because its seems to be just another WoW v2. I do play AoC, and so far I have no intention of stopping.

But yes Funcom needs to fix alot in the game.

What I like with AoC is that its a different breed, especially in the graphical department and that it had no elfs nor dwarfs.

It is only a WoW v2 at the most superficial glance; the kind of comparison if you flick  printed screenshots before an 8 year old for a split second.

Nah, I'll admit there is a similar 'look and feel' to both games but gameplaywise it's pretty much a whole different game. RvR vs. PvE focus for instance.

And it does look a lot better if you look a little closer.

WoW: http://wow.allakhazam.com/images/fashion/ToughScorpidBracersOrc.jpg

WAR: http://www3.telus.net/public/mehwulfe/kyan/WAR/classes/blackorc-t4-vi.jpg

At least more kick ass :P

I understand that some players really love those realistic graphics and player races of AoC but personally I found them to be boring in the long run. Diversity kicks ass in games in that the race/class combo you pick feels more 'unique' and becomes more 'you', if you catch my drift. But that's just me.

Personally I think AoC is going to have some big difficulties to still make proffits in the near future (considering the huge developement costs of AoC). Mythic needed 500k subs to keep WAR alive, like they said, I suspect FunCom had similar aims with AoC and they are already below that number.

WoW has a big enough buffer of subs to cope with a few dents here and there.