Funcom, whats going on ?

[Chaman-bourru]

Funcom needs to hire some greek consultants, they are used to this

[doggy81]

Some info about wether the servers will keep running would be nice. Currently, customers cannot be sure if to spend any money on AoC, as may go down the drain all too soon. Thus, the insecurity is costing money.

It will, of course, not be possible to give any definitive answers. But at least a hint of what's going on should be possible.

This is what I am talking about. There are people, who pay a whole year premium. What happens if the company is bancrupt in a few months ? The people who paid premium wont get a cent back of their money and cant play the game. This is fraud.

[xCodename]

I am wondering too what happens if they can't pay for running servers anymore... would like to know if they got any plans to sell the game to another company but to be honest, which company would buy AoC? The game itself has bad reputation, low playerbase, the subscription model, several bugs that exist since release and a very unorganized code (since there were many teams working on it and thats the stated reason why the crafting update took so long...).

[Radicaltop]

Funcom has about a 50% chance of bankruptcy in the next 2 years according to this financial analysis site:

http://www.macroaxis.com/invest/rati...-Of-Bankruptcy

If bankruptcy occurs, it might be the Chapter 11 type (restructuring) instead of the Chapter 7 type (liquidation), so AOC would most likely keep running under a Chapter 11 scenario.

[Touchii]

I am wondering too what happens if they can't pay for running servers anymore... would like to know if they got any plans to sell the game to another company but to be honest, which company would buy AoC? The game itself has bad reputation, low playerbase, the subscription model, several bugs that exist since release and a very unorganized code (since there were many teams working on it and thats the stated reason why the crafting update took so long...).

AoC is still a gem for lots of companies, if they are willing to invest in it ofcource and besides I don't think that Norwegian government will let them go down.

[Ythor]

So let's see... if a company bankrupts, the creditors take over their assets. As they are trying to minimize their losses, they focus on what still makes revenue while removing everything else (that only takes money away). AoC is a subscription model, which makes revenue, they won't shut it down. TSW, on the other hand, only takes cash between expansions or when they can make money out of it periodically. Lego is too young with **** revenue. AO is an ancient game with probably tiniest playerbase. So my guess they would keep AoC and AO alive (since they create steady revenue) and shut down everything else (not the servers, just the production/support). That's the only logical way.

[Roragar]

So let's see... if a company bankrupts, the creditors take over their assets. As they are trying to minimize their losses, they focus on what still makes revenue while removing everything else (that only takes money away). AoC is a subscription model, which makes revenue, they won't shut it down. TSW, on the other hand, only takes cash between expansions or when they can make money out of it periodically. Lego is too young with **** revenue. AO is an ancient game with probably tiniest playerbase. So my guess they would keep AoC and AO alive (since they create steady revenue) and shut down everything else (not the servers, just the production/support). That's the only logical way.

While you would think so, when have Funcom ever been logical?

Im of the opposite to most of the views here, doom & gloom im afraid.
With the Conan licence coming up for renewal in the next couple of years I dont think they are going to hang onto it.
As mentioned above Funcom are probably going to go one of two ways, either totally bust or restructured & from what im seeing with their current behavior of ignoring AoC an the whole "Vanneheim" debacle I cant see them hanging onto it. The whole licencing thing is probably a big pain the rear, combined with a game that half the code is unworkable. Not to mention that Funcom actually own the IP for TSW so its their baby, they are only plugging that at the moment & any "improvements" we see in AoC are merely hand me downs from TSW, the dungeon finder being an example. If they had any intention of keeping AoC they would still have some attempt at marketing it, which they dont at all. No posts from social media, no community management, not updated via Steam since the server merges, not included in the summer sales etc, its as if they dont even want people to know it exists. While TSW gets all of those.

I think Funcom are going to fold within in the next year, two at best & AoC an AO gone with some form of restructuring where we see a smaller Funcom with TSW as its main title & small mobile games/apps like the Lego nonsense developed on the side.

[Chegy4]

lol what a bad management... figures :P

[xCodename]

AoC is still a gem for lots of companies, if they are willing to invest in it ofcource and besides I don't think that Norwegian government will let them go down.

I am sorry but I still can't imagine that any company would buy AoC. The game is just too old and broken with a too low population and it's almost forgotten nowdays. Since end of 2011 (It went F2P in June or July and the F2P trailer was made or articles about the new model of the game in PC gaming Forums were created) not even a bit of advertisement was done for AoC, they released it on Steam but the site is totally outdated, the reviews there were talking about the 3 classes that are free for F2P players and all the old restrictions for them. In my opionion every logical thinking company would rather buy the Conan license to create a new game to start completely from beginning.

[Kurt2013]

I am sorry but I still can't imagine that any company would buy AoC. The game is just too old and broken with a too low population and it's almost forgotten nowdays. Since end of 2011 (It went F2P in June or July and the F2P trailer was made or articles about the new model of the game in PC gaming Forums were created) not even a bit of advertisement was done for AoC, they released it on Steam but the site is totally outdated, the reviews there were talking about the 3 classes that are free for F2P players and all the old restrictions for them. In my opionion every logical thinking company would rather buy the Conan license to create a new game to start completely from beginning.

Not necessarily...you already have a playerbase and fanbase, that has proven to be loyal despite all attempts of the company to drive them off or over to tsw. You are right about the license, this would be the most important part, but i would use a lot of designs and the action based combat of the existing game and move them over to a new game system or engine. Then start to properly expand the gameworld again. This might already qualify for a new beginning, but it would still be easier with a working game to use stuff from.