JAN. 12, 2009 • Funcom announces that it is reducing the number of Age of Conan Servers worldwide from 49 to 18. The largest number of reductions comes in the United States, which falls to six from 24. In Europe, the number of servers remaining after the reduction will be 12 to accommodate the various languages in the EU. The number of English servers in Europe dropped to four from 13.

Impact: Age of Conan started off with strong sales, but like many other recent high-end MMOGs, the game has struggled to convert a high percentage of retail into long term subscribers. Of course, World of Warcraft set all kinds of records and raised overall expectations. The problem is other games are finding that the number of people willing to pay $15 a month on a regular basis seems to peak in the 250,000 to 500,000 range. Those levels can still generate a great deal of money. In 2008, Funcom had revenue of about $40 million versus only $5 million in 2007. This was driven almost solely by Age of Conan. Unfortunately, the company and its investors were hoping for a massive hit along the lines of Warcraft. Five years ago, Conan would have been seen as a big success, in today’s market is seen as a disappointment.