"We naturally regret that we have to push back 'Age of Conan'. However, after careful consideration, and analysis of recent Beta feedback, we believe that the new release date is in the best interest of the gamers, our company and our owners," said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. "We are fully committed to delivering games with absolute qualities, and in the current MMO marketplace we know that only the best is good enough to truly succeed. With the new release date we have therefore given ourselves more time to meet and deliver on the massive expectations for the game. We are certain that our choice will ultimately pay off, and that all 'Age of Conan' players will get a special online experience." - Funcom announces new release date for 'Age of Conan'
Very understandingly, the response to this announcement was disappointing, but it was a very gutsy, humble, yet reassuring Gaute Godager ("Santa Gaute" as I now like to call him, and Funcom too, from what I hear) that addressed the community personally to explain the reasons behind the delay in his letter to the community. I expressed my thoughts on the matter in my August 17 edition of Mitra's Method, but once again, after dealing with the shock of yet another delay to the game's launch, we all took a deep breath, nodded and said to Funcom, "Take all the time you need; we look forward to March 25, 2008". It was at this point that only a select-few had decided they had had enough with Funcom's "flippancy", and decided to cut their personal ties to 'Age of Conan' because apparently Funcom had been lying and keeping secrets from us all this time. Bollocks to them, I say.
In what now looked like a move to ensure that strong media interest remained on 'Age of Conan', Funcom took the game on the road in the month of August, and unveiled one of the game's much anticipated features, siege warfare. On August 17 at GC Leipzig, Germany, fans for the first time saw siege warfare in action and attendees of GC got some hands-on time with the game as they got down and dirty with some brutal PvP action. The response was very positive but clearly, given Funcom's new take and direction with the combat system, more work needed to be done, but things certainly looked good. For their efforts, 'Age of Conan' won "Best Online Game" for GC 2007. Despite the criticism after the game's delay, 'Age of Conan' was still managing to "Wow!" its critics and prove itself to be a real contender in the MMORPG market.
