Strategy Informer recently had the chance to ask Jørgen Tharaldsen, Product Director for Funcom, a few questions relating to the recently released MMO Age of Conan, which has been released on the PC, but is also expected for the Xbox 360.
Funcom has been quiet about the Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan, so we asked Jørgen Tharaldsen how development for this version is coming along, and he told us that the Xbox 360 version is not the companies key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game.
“Development on the Xbox 360 version is not our key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game, and we rightly have the focus on them. While there is a dedicated specialist project team working on Xbox, the PC version will remain our top priority for now.”
You can see our question, and Jørgen's full answer for that question below.
Strategy Informer: The Xbox 360 version is still in development, but how is development for this version going? Are you planning any big changes, due to the problems that you have found with the PC version of age of Conan?
Jørgen Tharaldsen: Development on the Xbox 360 version is not our key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game, and we rightly have the focus on them. While there is a dedicated specialist project team working on Xbox, the PC version will remain our top priority for now.
If anything I think that the console version is greatly benefiting from the many updates and improvements we are constantly making to the PC version, and the launch issues we had will only serve to make the Xbox version a much better experience.
Seeing how a console and a PC is inherently very different in control input, HD space, patching cycle, available memory and so on, there are naturally many challenges involved in this work, and while we have overcome many there are more to go, not just from a design and tech standpoint, but also from business, community and marketing. The time will come for MMO games, or similar experiences, to do great on the consoles though, and hopefully Conan will be one of the pioneers in that regards.
We then asked Jørgen about a possible release date for the Xbox 360 version, and Jørgen told us that "We have never given a date on the release as far as I know, merely saying after the PC version, and probably with a year or more, so no Conan on Xbox in 2008
As for stating an exact date; we will for sure come back with more details as soon as we are ready for it."
Xbox 360 fans looking forward to an Age of Conan port are probably going to have to wait a long time until they see anything solid.
