The Future of AoC: Funcom Annual Report.

[KullOfValusia]

Originally, I had a very long analysis of this 100 page glossy mega report.

But, I think it's best to let it speak for itself.

http://www.funcom.com/investors/func...ial_statements


Although, the AoC content/updates are fine (although you would never know with the mega whining from pvpers to bored end game pvers)... the financial state of the company itself is begining to even creep my super fanboi self out. To sum it up. Usually, at this stage of a company's descent they got 1 last bullet to hit something BIG.

However, grab some coffee sit back and take a look yourself.

[kinlock]

Can you summarize what the reports say for us that don't have the time to read the reports and/or enough financial understanding of them.
Just something simple. Things have improved? a little? a lot? things are worse? a little? a lot?

[Slith]

nice read. Here are my "best lols" from the report:

- the Free-to-Play model has been constantly improved
to bett er serve the company, the game and its players.

- Aft er the launch of The Secret World the Company also delivered five major content updates and
switched to a buy-to-play business model for the game.
In addition, the Company continued to deliver updates and new features for its other main titles Age of Conan

- With Age of
Conan sharing this same technology platform with
The Secret World, the game has been able to benefit
from the advancements done to Dreamworld as part
of the development and post-launch additions done
to The Secret World.

Interesting stuff:
-Funcom acquired as from June 6, 2003 a 10 year exclusive
right for the use of the Conan brand for MMO games
on all current and future platforms. Later Funcom
extended this right until 2023

- the dynamic content systems
will be further developed in Age of Conan

[Erock25]

Ringofset is a bad guard

[K4nnyc]

- the Free-to-Play model has been constantly improved
to better serve the company, the game and its players.
Not true. This is an outright lie.

- In addition, the Company continued to deliver updates and new features for its other main titles Age of Conan
Not true. A complete fabrication.

- With Age of Conan sharing this same technology platform with
The Secret World, the game has been able to benefit
from the advancements done to Dreamworld as part
of the development and post-launch additions done
to The Secret World.
Not true, or AOC didn't benefit from this yet.

- the dynamic content systems
will be further developed in Age of Conan
That's good news. When? 2016?


Are they allowed to lie and bu11shit in these reports? Is that legal?

[Religolibri]

It's never easy to understand those report, especially when they're talking about numbers.

I'm scared of what I've read in the beginning, I think it was the CEO introduction. He mentioned that funcom will move on to make small games that cost less etc... totally depressing to hear this.

[Kurt2013]

The f2p model in AoC has actually seen some changes (gold limits, instance access and class access).
But it is far from good and it is argueable, if giving away something for free, they could have charged "once" for permanent access is an improvement to the model. Not complaining, but it shows that actionism > thought through system.

Well, there has been constant new content to AoC...just some highlights from 2012:
- char sorting on selection screen
- quests in eiglo mountains
- resscamp revamp patch
- conq revamp
Also Dragonspine is nice looking new content (though with argueable mob design and placement and target group accessibility).

AoC has "benefitted" probably. We now have circlets, armor pieces and see-through body parts, that we did not have in 2010. Also we have invisible mobs killing you without you able to target them. The rest might be positive ninja changes, maybe?

Actually i think the "interesting" part Slith mentioned is rather good news...they have the rights for Conan another ten years e.g. the game will be around a while longer.

So, it might not be legal to outright lie, but they did not lie...just twisted and filtered...some people take years to study just that

About the benefits from the synergy to AoC...can someone give example of those? Scaling loot like in forgotten city maybe? random loot from scaleable bags? Or is most "invisible" tools?

@RingofSet: They already have something BIG: AoC. If you look at the report, only AoC and AO are somewhat predictable considering market changes...the rest is very...variable. So if they use the work to stabilize and consolidate, it might work out well...
Also the portfolio is not bad looking either: one scifi mmo, one unique low fantasy mmo and one unique modern horror mmo. Should be possible to make some money out of this, shouldn't it?

The interesting read will be the 2013 report...

[Religolibri]

Actually i think the "interesting" part Slith mentioned is rather good news...they have the rights for Conan another ten years e.g. the game will be around a while longer.

What it means is that no other company than funcom can create an MMO game using the Conan license until 2023.

But still, yeah, Age of Conan 1 will be here for some time and that's good.

[KullOfValusia]

The key part is that they paid to extend the license. This is VERY important in my belief that maybe just MAYBE they may...in the distant future..dare I say it ? ..Make Age of Conan 2? But that's wild guessing and craziness.

Some key parts.

First: YOU GUYS MUST LAYOFF JOEL BYLOS AND THE DEV TEAM. I had no idea that they were running such an insane skeletal crew.

Effectively, YES they will be concentrating more on Secret World then AoC. It says that right in the management notes: we believe our main revenue drivers in the future will come from the Secret World and the upcoming Lego Action Minifigures game. So, from what I'm gathering the decision/resource allocation process works like this.

Priority------------->least priority.
FC HQ<--Approval-->Joel Bylos(strategic direction on all 3 games)<---Secret World<--Dev team-->AoC<---AO(effectively maintenance mode)

The main goal, according to the report, for AoC is 1.) Sub retention 2.) F2P to P2P Conversion.

So this is great news for the content whiners since sub retention can only mean more content and bug fixes. Since F2P conversion is more business end carrot waving (since there's tons of content for new players.)

My main concern are the numbers. They went from -11 million USD operating rev to -47 million USD operating rev their stock value is at -.99 per share. I'm not an expert on these matters so someone who is may need to speak up..but just looking at it, shouldn't a company have positive numbers to be healthy and accelerating negative numbers? Again, need further analysis from an expert.

[Lord-Mouser]

It's nice that they're going to try and introduce new content to coincide with the new Conan movie.

Edit: Lol, Age of Conan 2 isn't happening. I think it would be a smart investment since AoC already has the best combat out of any mmorpg though. They just need to polish the gameworld and add some dynamic content.