Funcom have final released it financial resultes for the first fiscal quarter of 2008, with a earning before interest and tax loss of $3.13 million, compared to a loss of $1.21 the last year - due to increased cost of marketing and repairing of Age of Conan.

Funcom earning after tax also increased from a loss of $220,000 lasy year to a profit of 919,000, but put down mostly to currency flucuations and tax inome. Funcom also reported a cash balance of $47 million at the end of March 2008. A goldmine to help to take advantage of a relatively clear launch window, here with both primary competitors as World of Warcraft: Wrath of the lich King and of cause Warhammer Online Age there both are going to be released this year.

However, Funcom also mention some potential risk with the launch of Age of Conan, mostly about the stability of the server and of cause maintaining the subscriber number in the following month. Strange enough, Funcom dont have a overview of the pre-order status of Age of Conan, there lead hints to only a few have actully preordre the game. During there "Open Beta" funcom claims to have experienced some
technical issues about the game and most of those was fixed in about 10 days.

Funcom is still a High risk company, but if they manage to gain 250K subscribe they will be profitable.

I think it will definitely do better than Vanguard (initially). The question is, how well will it do after the first 3 months of launch? The answer depends on how many bugs they thwart between now and then. I kind of wish they could delay it for Winter / Xmas season to put more polish into it... but obviously that ain't gonna happen. . If the game fails completly, Funcom will most likley go bankrupt and loose all money.

Link: http://p036.d1.funcom.com/funcom/frontend/files/CONTENT/Funcom_Q108_Report.pdf

The whole issue is based on their ability to turn a profit by having 250K subscriptions.

I think thats not High risk at all. I know the gaming culture, I know the current gaming climate. If all the company needs is 250K subscriptions...

I would put money on that bet!

I like Funcom as a company, I bought the preorder and I'll be playing the game and supporting them.

Kind of opens my eyes on what a porject like this must cost to get off the ground.

Meanwhile immature impatient adults acting like 12 year olds cry because everything in a very complex system is not perfect. 

I hope Funcom does well.

Interesting if true, just a few quick questions.

Is that a typo or did you mean to type they had a cash balance totaling only 47 dollars at the end of march?.

And more importantly how did you manage to sneak into my house and take a picture of my PC without me noticing?

Or is that just a representation of what the average users PC might look like after attempting to play in one AOC’s EPIC! MASSIVE! HUGE! keep siege battles?

EDIT i checked myself, correct figure for cash flow statement end of period 31 march 2008 is TUSD 46,991 in cash and equivalents.

Originally posted by Battlekruse

 Funcom dont have a overview of the pre-order status of Age of Conan, there lead hints to only a few have actully preordre the game.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/12508701/ref=pd_ts_zbw_vg_12508701_more?&pf_rd_p=302739501&pf_rd_s=right-4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=229575&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1W3JDAWZYFV7VT8XXMG5

There is also some info that already 700.000 copies are sold BUT i refuse to believe that.
( WoW had like 500K US and EU together )

Originally posted by Polarization

 

 

 

Interesting if true, just a few quick questions.

Is that a typo or did you mean to type they had a cash balance totaling only 47 dollars at the end of march?.

And more importantly how did you manage to sneak into my house and take a picture of my PC without me noticing?

Or is that just a representation of what the average users PC might look like after attempting to play in one AOC’s EPIC! MASSIVE! HUGE! keep siege battles?

Originally posted by Czzarre

The whole issue is based on their ability to turn a profit by having 250K subscriptions.

I think thats not High risk at all. I know the gaming culture, I know the current gaming climate. If all the company needs is 250K subscriptions...

I would put money on that bet!

IF AoC can launch smooth and keep up with the demand that the players place on them, they will be fine but that is a huge IF.  

Most gamers in the current market will make up their mind quickly about AoC and either quit or keep playing, after 3 months check the subs and see were its at... If they can maintain 250k they will be turning a profit, if they get 250k and then after the first 3 months they have to do server merging then they will go out of business and SoE or another big company will scoop up AoC and run with it.

(I say SoE because they love to buy games after the game releases and the development company dies)

Originally posted by Polarization

 

 

 

Interesting if true, just a few quick questions.

Is that a typo or did you mean to type they had a cash balance totaling only 47 dollars at the end of march?.

And more importantly how did you manage to sneak into my house and take a picture of my PC without me noticing?

Or is that just a representation of what the average users PC might look like after attempting to play in one AOC’s EPIC! MASSIVE! HUGE! keep siege battles?

That is 46,991,000 USD they have on hand as of March 31, 2008.  They had no choice but to launch.  They are out of money.  This is what bites all of these companies and forces them to launch when they'd all rather spend more time in devopment. 

Originally posted by Polarization

 

 

 

Interesting if true, just a few quick questions.

Is that a typo or did you mean to type they had a cash balance totaling only 47 dollars at the end of march?.

And more importantly how did you manage to sneak into my house and take a picture of my PC without me noticing?

Or is that just a representation of what the average users PC might look like after attempting to play in one AOC’s EPIC! MASSIVE! HUGE! keep siege battles?

I hope FC do manage to retain 250k subs after 3 months although it's by no means certain, I believe LotRo for example falls way short of that mark.

And more than 5 million unique visitors to the official Age of Conan website in 2008. Funcom and Eidos are proud to confirm some of the impressive figures powering the Age of Conan launch, and the two companies are happy to reveal that the Age of Conan Beta has passed 1 million sign-ups! As one of the most anticipated MMO’s ever, the 1 million mark confirms the amazing interest in the game. “Funcom has not been able to find any higher beta numbers for MMOs in the western world,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Funcom Sales and Marketing. “We believe it represents the largest ever beta sign-up figure in the history of the genre.” In addition to the incredible beta numbers, Funcom confirms that almost 800.000 gamers have signed up for the Clan of Conan newsletter. The hundreds of thousands following the development of the game have moreover resulted in a rapidly growing forum community. Last week Funcom registered over 115.000 posts on the official forums, across four languages. This comes in addition to Age of Conan discussions on external forums and in other languages. In 2008, Funcom has also seen a tremendous growth in the amount of people who visit the official Age of Conan websites. Since January 2008, Funcom has registered more than 5 million unique visitors, from more than 200 countries. Last week alone over 725.000 unique visitors came to the Age of Conan sites. The coverage and interest on external gaming sites has skyrocketed as a result of the growing anticipation. Age of Conan has topped numerous charts as the most read about, most popular and most anticipated PC game in development. As an example, GameSpot.com has Age of Conan as the #1 most read about upcoming game over the last month, on any format. The game has seen a similar interest on genre specific sites, including being the #1 most popular MMO over the last 12 months on MMORPG.com. Print gaming publications have also covered the game widely, and the game now has over 20 covers, including the coveted cover of PC Gamer US. “How all of our strong figures convert into later sales and subscription figures is still unknown,” continued Larssen. “But our pre-order numbers in some important retail chains track as among the highest for any MMO launched.” Age of Conan launches 20th of May in North America / Oceania and 23rd of May in Europe. To celebrate the amazing community figures surrounding Age of Conan Funcom and Eidos today unveils a brand new trailer. Aptly called the Femme Fatale trailer, the new video can be downloaded in HD quality from the media section at http://community.ageofconan.com. For more information or to pre-order Age of Conan – either in English, German, French or Spanish – please visit the official websites. __________________ Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz Senior Community Manager

Let the truth be told..

Originally posted by Czzarre

The whole issue is based on their ability to turn a profit by having 250K subscriptions.

I think thats not High risk at all. I know the gaming culture, I know the current gaming climate. If all the company needs is 250K subscriptions...

I would put money on that bet!

LoTRO couldn't do it.  CoH couldn't.  EQ2 briefly spiked over the mark, but quickly fell off again.  Most of the recent releases haven't even come close.

And these titles are moderately successful.  If Funcom is such an unhealthy company that it is banking on AoC to be MORE than successful, your bet is a very bad one indeed.