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Funcom Acquires Entire Conan IP, New Game in Development

Christina Gonzalez Posted:
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Funcom, the studio behind Age of Conan, Conan Exiles, Anarchy Online and The Secret World, has acquired Cabinet Group, which owns many IPs including everything under the Conan umbrella. Now, Funcom will have the whole Conan IP under its Heroic Signatures division, and already, Funcom CEO Rui Casais confirmed one unannounced game is already in development.

According to a press release on the acquisition, they "are currently overseeing the development of an unannounced game which will combine many of the characters in the Robert E. Howard universe". While there's no word on just what genre to expect, there's no doubt this is a significant acquisition.

Heroic Signatures' new president will be Frederik Malmberg, who was CEO of Cabinet Group. Since Cabinet already held and fostered licensing deals with Penguin Random House, Monolith, and Titan Books, a Conan comic through Marvel and a Netflix deal, it makes sense for him to bring that experience with him. In addition to the unannounced game, it seems that Malmberg is ready to get started at the table again to find ways to bring the controlled IPs to new projects. "What Fortnite has done with The Avengers, for instance, or the impact a live in-game concert can have on awareness," he states in the release, is something they are already looking for the right opportunities to use tech and culture and blend their owned IPs in different directions to keep them relevant through shared visions.

With their rich catalog, this deal is worth watching to see where things go, especially since Funcom’s long development history across various genres is also a factor here. It likely won’t just be Conan or Howard properties that find their way into new projects.

While there's no immediate impact that we can see just yet, Funcom and Conan go way back, so this partnership seems like not just a pretty great way to leverage an IP their teams have clearly found creatively fruitful, but for the possibilities having that dedication take control may have. For the full acquisition details, visit the Funcom site here.


Seshat

Christina Gonzalez

Christina is MMORPG.COM’s News Editor and a contributor since 2011. Always a fan of great community and wondering if the same sort of magic that was her first guild exists anymore.