We’re pretty spoiled when it comes to musclebound barbarians. If you like beefy, sweaty men who like to fight – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? – then you’re well catered for. Conan is undoubtedly the king of these sexy men, and it looks like we’ll soon be getting a new Conan-inspired game from Age of Conan and Secret World developer, Funcom.
Funcom have been running Age of Conan since it launched as a subscription MMO in 2008, before being reborn as a F2P game in 2011. The game was set after The Hour of the Dragon, one of the best known Conan novels, and in the Conan chronology, it’s his final story, or at least his final story as written by Robert E. Howard.
Though it made good use of Howard’s world, it was an uneven MMO, though its persistence suggests that it’s improved, and when I jumped back in a couple of years ago, I found it to be an enjoyable diversion.
Conan Properties must certainly have faith in Funcom, because they’ve just made an agreement with the developer, making it the preferred partner for all PC and console games based on Conan and the world of Hyborea. Funcom will be announcing their first new Conan project in January.
“We are tremendously excited to be strengthening our relationship with Conan Properties,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “‘Conan the Barbarian’ is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest and most recognizable fantasy heroes, and as game developers, working with such a character and being able to draw from the fantastically detailed world of Hyboria is nothing short of a dream come true.”
Aside from Age of Conan, the only other Conan game to have launched in the last decade was 2007’s console action game, titled simply ‘Conan’. It was a middling God of War knock off, but it did have Ron Perlman voicing the titular barbarian, which was nice.
What would you lovely lot like to see from a new Conan game?