Kotaku
The release of Funcom's Age of Conan is a little over a month away, and preorder offers are in full swing across North America, Europe, and Oceania. Players who preorder will get exclusive in-game items, such as the War Mammoth and Killer Rhino mounts (accessible after level 40), and a special storage belt dealie. As a special bonus to those who reserve themselves a copy, Funcom and Eidos are offering a three-day head start, where you'll be able to play the game before those suckers who didn't put down some cash, all for the low, low price of 5 USD (or 5 EUR). What, you have to pay? Not quite sure what world that makes sense in. It doesn't seem to be referring to the $5 you put down for reserve either. You get 30 days free play in the box, why make players pay $5 for the first 10 days? It boggles the mind, but hey...a head start is a head start. Hit up the Age of Conan website for details on participating retailers.
AGE OF CONAN GETS READY FOR LAUNCHPre-order programs now available in all Western territories offering three day head-start in Hyboria
DURHAM, North Carolina - April 16, 2008 - Funcom and Eidos today announced that Age of Conan pre-order programs are now fully available in all major territories including USA, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Oceania and the Nordic countries. Conan fans and MMO gamers are already raving about the incredible pre-order items, including the War Mammoth and Killer Rhino, and today Funcom goes one step further to confirm that pre-ordering Age of Conan will grant players early access to the land of Hyboria.*
Ever since Funcom and Eidos started the first pre-orders in early 2008, the program has received great feedback. The exceptional Age of Conan Collector's Edition has topped the charts in numerous online retail chains for weeks, including being #1 on several all-format lists. The most eager fans are therefore urged to order their copy of the Collector's Edition immediately as it only comes in one print-run.
Funcom now also confirms an early access program which will give customers a chance of a head-start in Age of Conan. Funcom reveals that American, European and Oceanic players may enter Age of Conan as early as the 17th of May. Mere weeks away, early adopters can now live, fight and explore in Hyboria, as well as getting an essential head-start before the hordes invade.
"We are very pleased with the reception Age of Conan has had in retail and we naturally hope that the early interest and our early access programs will materialize in an eventual success," said Morten Larssen, VP Sales and Marketing of Funcom. "The positive indications are naturally an honor, but they also bring a great responsibility. As we prepare the roll-out, we know our servers will be put to the test. We therefore hope potential players will aid us by signaling their interest as soon as possible so we can scale our servers and services accordingly."
Age of Conan launches on May 20 and is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated PC games in development. It has received more than 25 magazine covers and more than 15 major awards including numerous "Best MMO of E3" awards and the "Best Online Game of Show" award at GC 2007. Age of Conan is a key title in Microsoft's Games for Windows lineup, as well as a showcase title for nVidia.
Visit www.ageofconan.com to join the thriving community or to sign up for the Beta
For a list of participating retailers or to get more information about the game, please visit: www.ageofconan.com
* The early access program is only available with certain retailers; a participant list can be found on the official Age of Conan website. The early access is entirely voluntary and opens up on the 17th of May for Oceanic and North American gamers and on the 20th of May for European gamers. Pre-loading of the client will commence in advance. You need to pay a nominal 5 USD / EUR fee to take advantage of the offer, which includes client download and 10 days of subscription. When the early access offer expires you must enter the physical retail box gamekey to continue playing.
Comments
5 dollars = preorder deposit.
i paid mine =D
that's like the same price as a normal subscription when you multiply it out. 10 days is about a 1/3 of a month. So this makes... very little sense... head hurting.
I paid off all of mine, I can't wait to get this.
Plus all the in-game swag.
Zingers!
Does it really come with 30 days with the box?
@relax_guy: That's just the thing. This isn't the preorder deposit. This is a "nominal fee". This isn't taken off the price of the game.
@ohhello: It does indeed.
There's no preorder I'm more dubious of than an MMO ... I'll wait for the reviews, thanks.
your $5 deposit you put down for the game gets you a download key to start playing 10 days early. you will download the entire game. When you pick the game up at the store, you won't have to install it but use a code to continue, for the 30 days which comes with the game. then you pay for the next month.
He-man, oops.
I think I want that War Mammoth.
You do not get to start playing ten days early.
As you can see in the article, and in the Clan of Conan newsletter, you get to start playing 3 days before launch.
The extra 10 days is given to you to make the $5 charge sting a bit less.
I probably wouldn't have done the prestart but since it's 10 >extra< days for 5 bucks (plus 3 days of the headstart), I probably will.
Makes sense though. The client is something like 25 gigs so I'm not surprised that they're trying to make up some money they're going to spend on download servers for it.
Anyone get the War Mammoth code yet, or will they be available upon pickup?
BTW, I'm all for paying the 5 bucks. A fiver is easy to rationalize away. I can pretend that I bought a 5 dollar sammitch or something.
I'll gladly pay $5 to have a reason to get away from WoW 3 days qiucker.
I predict that this game is going to horribly tank.
@Cutedge: 25 gigs?!?!
3 day headstarts are a bad omen.
@Mike Fahey:
whoa.. whaa? noo..
GAAAAAMMMEEESTOOOOOOOOOOOP LIEEEEEED TOO MEEEEEEEEE... KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!
some store clerk is getting put in a headlock in 33 days...
Was gonna get it anyway without a preorder, but this is a great deal. Even if everybody's gonna take up the chance for the free mount and early access, it'll be great in a couple years' time where you'll still have your preorder mount showing you're one of the first people to play the game. So awesome. The early playtime even starts the day after my birthday which I booked a week off for, so it's pretty good for me. I can play it solid if it's worth it.
*sigh* I'm becoming more fearful as to whether this will ever come out for the 360 as any news of development seems to have all but stopped. I would have been so much more excited about this had it been for the 360... I would have even dropped some money down on a pre-order.
Then again, I kind of want to see impressions from a beta or an early (p)review before I pre-order anything.
I am still waiting for my PvP weekend email from GS. That should give me a good gauge on whether I should preorder. This game will commence to take over the weekends; with what little time I can afford.
So basically I can pay $5 to try the game for 13 days before I decide whether I want to purchase the retail version for $50?
Aha! So that's step 2.
@Mustakrakish: Actually, that's also what the drinking cape is for. Not available after launch so it's another item to show off with...and get drunk with...and into fights with...hic...
@Abdar: Dude if you want out so bad why havent you left already?
Finally it's coming out! was waiting for it whole year, with all the setbacks was getting worried it gets canceled.
I will pre order so it's time to switch from WoW, been playing for almost 3 years and change is needed :) got 2 weeks left subscription, gonna give my stuff away and /delete my characters :'(
But it's not bad most of the guildies re rolling AOC so we will be playing together. And 3 days had start sounds good :)
@Plastixblue: It just doesn't work that way Plastix... It just doesn't. You try to get away and it haunts you. I can tell you that since I've given up WoW, just to stay away I've played through Bioshock 5 times, Eternal Sonata twice... I've been picking up tons of extra hours at work to stay away from the PC... etc.
You don't quit WoW... WoW quits you.
In all seriousness... it's a tough habit to break... and having another MMO to jump to may seem like circular logic (if it's good enough to pull you from WoW, won't you end up staying until the next big thing?) it helps to have a change of scenery.
Maybe I'm just rambling.. but I identify with people who can't just quit without a place to go to :P
@DigiMish: I agree with you 100%. I don't think this game is the piece of heaven that everyone's looking for. I don't even think Warhammer Online is what people are waiting for.
Basically what needs to be done is someone needs to clone world of warcraft in nearly every way... and just design a new world, and new set of quests. Yeah "just" that... as that would be one hell of a task.. I doubt that it will happen anytime soon.
Until then I just work my keester off and try to forget about my dwarven warrior by playing Xbox. Hell... even went out and got a new TV to coax me back into the console world.
...what? You thought I could go cold turkey? New TV = 'the patch'
@SlamDancinMoogle:
Nonsense. I quit WoW cold turkey.
70 War, full arena epics, full Kara epics (some Gruul's), netherdrake. Mining/Swordsmith.
Had a regular arena teams (2v2, 3v3 AND 5v5), regular raid starting Gruul's and was guild leader.
I cancelled my sub and suddenly...
...I had tons of free time! Started sleeping and eating right, got back into shape, and I'm quitting my IT job in a couple months and going to art school like I've always wanted to.
As an aside, working in IT is ass. You can have your degrees and certs up the ass, you can be able to solve issues by simply glaring at the grumpy Cisco firewall and design networks in your sleep, but nevertheless they'll keep hiring drooling morons and saddle you with them, make you pager-available 24/7 and page you at 5am on monday completely ruining your sleep, and on top of that pay you (relatively) crap because corporations don't realise that without their IT they'd be completely crippled - either that or they do realise it but too many IT grads are willing to be bent over and raped. IT professionals need to form some sort of association like the Screewriter's guild, seriously. But fuck this game, I'm taking my ball and going home.
Er... /rant off.
@Koztah: Haha, well my hat's off to you for being stronger than I am in respect to the addiction, though I'm proud to say that it's been pretty easy the past six months or so.
As far as working IT goes... the way I hear it is that the industry is just becoming so saturated because "it's the future". They're offering lower wages because first timers can't get in the door and will be willing to take the low cut for the 'chance at moving up the ladder'.
The way it's talked about, that ladder is a pipe dream...
Also glad to hear you're pursuing your dream. Something everyone should never do is lose sight of their dream due to the daily doldrums of work life.
As far as the screenwriters' guild... I don't want to get into how that whole mess was really unnecessary... especially since the cost was my missing out on House =|
@Bei337: No. You pre-order the game. You pay $5 in addition to anything you deposit down.
Then you wait.
3 days before it releases, you get to start playing. Then, when the game releases, you elect to purchase or cancel your preorder.
If you purchase, you get 30 days of subscription time for free, plus the 10 days that came with opting-in to early access.
If for some reason you cancel your pre-order, as I read the above, you simply get to stop playing.
@okenny :): its liek you found every comment i'v ever made about this game in any article relating to this subject.
every time i read something on age of conan i never see any mention of the 360 version which always scares me. i'v had this game reserved for maybe a year for the 360 i still have yet to here anything on it.
im seriously thinking about buying it for the PC and then buying it again (if) when it comes out on 360. I have been drooling for this game for so long.
my only question if i did this would be, can i play as a character i started on the pc version on my 360 version?
@ArmyofJuan: Hey man.
From everywhere I've looked, they're mum on the whole 360 subject. There is no answer as to wether you'll be able to use your pc-made character on the 360 version of the game, or if the servers will be unique to a platform.
It's the whole reason I haven't pre-ordered it yet also. I'd hate to put a bunch of work into characters only to have to redo it.
Anyone know if this promotion works for in-store preorders? I can't tell if it's like an online only promotion or not. The people at Gamestop know nothing about it... I've been asking for weeks since this early play thing was announced
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