Another year is drawing to an end and the holidays are soon upon us. However you wish to celebrate this time of year, we at Funcom want to take this opportunity to wish you the best of holidays for you and your family. Funcom is a company with employees from over twenty different countries, and the developers are now getting ready to walk, drive or fly home to spend the last days of the year with their loved ones before going back to continue their work on Age of Conan again in January. Next year is going to be a celebration in itself for everyone who follows the game, as we’ll be revealing even more details on not only the game, but also the development process. We thank you for your interest in the game so far, and we hope to have you with us as we step into 2007!

From all of us to all of you, Happy holidays!

So you’re moving to another world. Hyboria awaits -- a world where you may end up spending hours upon hours adventuring with thousands of other people from all over the world. When you are but one player of so many, it is very important to have a character that feels unique to you -- especially when it comes to the visual appearance. In Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures you are given some incredibly powerful tools when you set out to sculpt and customize the appearance of your alter-ego, and you’ll probably be spending quite some time pulling and moving sliders around to get the perfect result if that’s what you want. And there are a lot of sliders to play around with in Age of Conan.
(read more...)

We have a special treat for you this month. The first of several upcoming installments of the video developer diaries are now available on select websites. With the video diaries we want to give you an insight into the development of Age of Conan and the people working on it. The video also contains never-before-seen footage of the game!

(You can find the video on numerous websites, such as Gamespot, Jeuxvideo, Onlinewelten, Juegaenred, InsideGamer and many others)

The Hyborian deserts contain secrets older than mankind itself. Nowhere is this more evident than in night-haunted Stygia, home to sorcerer-priests who worship the great serpent god Set. Its cities rise like dusky jewels from the fertile lands on southern banks of the dark river Styx, where slaves are sacrificed every day to slake the hunger of the Great Serpent. Scholars pore through crumbling texts for hints of lost knowledge that lie hidden among the trackless sands. For in Stygia, dark knowledge is the path to power.
(read more...)

One of the many species of predator that roam the desert, the hyena is a cunning and opportunistic hunter, as capable of living off the bodies of the dead as they are at stalking and killing live prey. Operating in large packs, hyenas use the same tactics as the wolf packs of the far north, pursuing solitary, sick or injured prey until they are exhausted, then closing in from all sides to finish off their victim with their powerful jaws.

(read more about the Hyenas and Scorpions)

Funcom is proud to present the Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures comic magazine! Created by the talented people over at Dark Horse Comics, it tells a story that ties into the game perfectly. The magazine has been produced in several hundred thousands copies, mostly bundled with various gaming magazines, and we will now start putting them onto our website. We’ve added five pages to the PDF so far (including the front page), and we’re adding another three pages today – making it a total of eight pages so far!

Read the updated comic book here! (PDF)

Every month website MMORPG.com will interview one of the many talented people that works on Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures here at Funcom to create a developer profile which is then posted on their website. For December, World Designer Thomas Wollbekk is featured. MMORPG.com sat down with him to pick his brains about everything from his childhood to what he does at Funcom. The article will be published on MMORPG.com

Durham, USA - December 12, 2006 - Funcom announces that 'Age of Conan' is approved for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. The announcement means that the highly anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) has received the green light from Microsoft, and that Funcom can start official development of an Xbox 360 version of the game.
Read the entire press release!

Every month we try to bring you some selected press coverage from
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. If you find something you would like to tell us about, please drop us an email. This is some of the coverage over the last couple of weeks:

19.12.06 — Interview on ActionTrip
18.12.06 — Preview on GamePro
18.12.06 — Interview on AoCTURK
15.12.06 — Preview on 1UP
15.12.06 — Preview on GameSpy
14.12.06 — Media on IGN RPGVault
14.12.06 — Gameplay video on GameVideos
14.12.06 — Preview on IGN
14.12.06 — Preview on Team Xbox
14.12.06 — Preview on Voodoo Extreme
14.12.06 — Preview on Vault Network
14.12.06 — Preview on Yahoo GamesDomain
14.12.06 — Preview at GameSpot
11.27.06 — On the cover of AFK Magazine

More news on the Community Site!

Every week we give you an update on Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures by posting our special Friday Update on the community website. Here are some of the Friday updates we’ve published recently:

15.12.06 — Coverage, screenshots and a video!
08.12.06 — New screenshots
01.12.06 — Concept Art update
01.12.06 — Press coverage and new screenshots

More news on the Community Site!

Take a look at this month’s exclusive screenshots! We’ve added four screenshots from the Khopshef Province, showing off some of the many locations you will be able to find in this part of Stygia. The mysterious pyramids, the life-giving rivers, the lush palms, the sandy dunes and the rustic villages all make up the detailed environment of Khopshef.
(check out the new screens)

This month we bring you an exclusive wallpaper themed according to this newsletters’ primary focus: Khopshef Province. The wallpaper comes in four different sizes.
(check out the new wallpaper)

Just because we are such incredibly kind people here at Funcom, we have decided to give away free loot every month. All you need to do is send us an email and hope for the best. Every month we pick out three people who will be sent a bunch of exclusive loot such as inflatable Conan swords, the Age of Conan comic, games and even hardware.

These three people will also receive a guaranteed place in the
Age of Conan beta test!

If you want to be one of the lucky three who gets Funcom loot delivered in the mail, you will need to send us an email and include your full name, your home address, and your telephone number in order to be eligible. You must also keep the subject of the email “Age of Conan December Newsletter Sweepstakes”. Those who enter and get picked out will have the opportunity to receive one or more exclusive prizes such as:

•  Concept Art print signed by the artist
•  Dreamfall: The Longest Journey PC game
•  Full-colored Age of Conan comic book
•  Inflatable Age of Conan toy swords

Send us an email by January 20th and you might get lucky!

No purchase necessary. Prizes are three (3) inflatable swords, three (3) comic books, three (3) copies of the Dreamfall PC game and one (1) Concept Art print signed by the artist. Odds of winning dependant on number of entries. Competition open to residents of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. (except Rhode Island and Puerto Rico). Drawing will be made by random draw in Oslo Norway on the day after the entry deadline. Any applicable taxes or customs fees are responsibility of winner. Entry to this competition is void where prohibited by local laws.

This month’s community site is the excellent AoC Informer. This fan site for Age of Conan has gone to great lengths in order to secure information on the game for their readers. The “fan site kit” is a wonderful way to help other people establish their own fan sites, showing that AoC Informer is eager to expand the growing list of sites dedicating themselves to the game. With elements such as the Guild Database and the Official AoC News Archive, the site has established itself as one of the best out there by both introducing new services as well as making existing game information easily available.

Visit  AoC Informer!

Have a suggestion for Community site of the Month? Email us now!