Though all retail copies of the mature PC came packed with the promise of a 7-day guest pass, only those who purchased the Collector's Edition can currently obtain their passes from their account page. Up to five guest passes are available for CE owners.

The program "will soon open up for the Buddy key found in the standard retail box as well," Funcom wrote on the game's official community site.

The studio suggests that friends lend out their Age of Conan install discs to invited buddies, though it is also offering "a $2.99/€2.99 client download with 3 additional days of playtime to cover the download time."

The complaints stem from an issue based in the MMO's basic combat system, in which female player characters dealt less damage than their male counterparts when engaged in combination attacks.

"Let me begin with saying 'yes, we here at Funcom agree with you; this is an unacceptable bug,'" said Age of Conan designer Svein Erik Jenset on the game's official forums. "We never intended for any character to be stronger/weaker than another based on its gender."

Jenset went on to explain that the imbalance boils down to the difference in character attack animation between male and female characters, which is one of ... Read more

Funcom has repeatedly trumpeted Age of Conan's relative success against Blizzard's MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft, which has over 10.7 million subscribers worldwide and helped bring in over $1.2 billion across 2007.

Conan has now amassed over 700,000 accounts since its European and North American release in May, with the game said to be topping PC sales... Read more

"What we chose to do at launch was to play it safe--to pick areas and zones and regions and hold them back, then finish them post-launch," explained Godager in a Eurogamer interview.

"That was to be able to polish the areas that we did for launch to a higher degree. So on the content side, the big zones that we're giving out this Autumn like Ymir's Pass and others--those are definitely pre-launch stuff that was cut or put on hold."

Godager noted that some 60 quests were patched into to the game in the past few weeks, with a further 60 fully-voiced missions to be added soon.

Funcom recently released a list of upcoming Age of Conan features, which include major PVP additions.

Included in the road map are "a massive new PvP update" due in late June, new social features, Guild Alliance Warfare, bigger battles, more adventures, new areas, and a combo-based dance system "entirely motion captured by professional dance artists."

"We know that a solid launch is but the start when it comes to the MMO genre," explained game director Gaute Godager. "What we are presenting today will evolve Age of Conan even further. It's naturally an incredibly ambitious update plan for a live MMO game, but we are certain our players would want nothing less."

A list of the new features, complete with official descriptions, is below... Read more

The company was vague on the specifics of its Age of Conan-branded offerings, which are expected to arrive later this year, but noted that the it will receive "the official marketing support of the publisher."

Inno-Wear is known to create a wide variety of "urban streetwear" for a number of properties, including Trackmania, Gears of War 2 and Devil May Cry. At present, the licensing agreement only extends to European territories.

While Inno-Wear holds the rights for European Gears of War clothing, the license for full-scale armor replicas lies with TriForce Sales.

The fate of the North American distribution rights for Age of Conan-branded clothing is unknown, leaving it unclear if such renowned fashion retailers as Banana Republic, GAP, Old Navy, Abercrombie, or Target will ever carry the latest in style.

Of that sum, nearly half have been shipped in the United States. The mature PC MMO launched roughly 3 weeks ago, hitting North America on May 20 Europe on May 23. An Xbox 360 edition is in the works, though no release estimate has been provided.

"Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft," Funcom marketing VP Morten Larssen noted. "The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history."

Known also for its work on The Longest Journey series, Funcom recently commented that the adventure franchise hasn't been abandoned, just placed "on the back burner" while it supports Age of Conan and continues development on other games, including its next MMO The Secret World

"Funcom can confirm that some of the female models in the game have had the size of their breasts changed," Swan wrote. "This is due to an unintended change in data that was introduced in an earlier patch, data which controls the so-called morph values associated with character models and the size of their respective body parts."

"We are working on a fix for this and your breasts should be back to normal soon," Swan added. "The plastic surgeons of Hyboria apologize for the inconvenience."

Though some might see a drop in character cup size a meager cause for concern, many members of the Age of Conan fan community have... Read more

Developer Funcom has announced that its subscription-based PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has accumulated more than 400,000 players since it launched on May 20, with "almost half" of those players located in North America.

According to the company, these figures make the gore and nudity-filled title "one of the fastest selling PC games of all time." At present, the only way to enter the world of Hyboria is to purchase the retail box. Each copy of the game comes with a 7-day guest pass, though the codes are not yet available.

"The initial sales and reviews are very encouraging, and it's great to see that so many are enjoying Age of Conan," Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas said with a grin. "This is just the beginning, and we already look forward to massive updates and cool new features."

Offered as a pre-order incentive, the early access program allows advance customers to access the game world and get a head start on their characters a full three days before its North American launch on Tuesday, May 20.

"We knew that a specific number of players would be willing to take the offer and get 3 days earlier access to the game," the company wrote in its forum. "That the registrations would reach that set limit as fast as they did we didn't quite expect."

The developer chalked up the set number of early access slots to the fact that, as the game will not be publicly released until next Tuesday, advance players need to download the entire game client instead of installing it from a DVD.

"The limit was set to make sure that registered players would have the chance to download the client and access the game servers," it added. "With an unlimited amount of players, that would not be possible."

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Funcom's mature PC MMO Age of Conan arrives on May 20 with a monthly subscription rate of $14.99. An Xbox 360 edition is expected in the future.

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Click through for the other tutorial. ... Read more

Erling, take it away.

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According to the company, a subscription will run $14.99 in North American and 12.99 EUR in Europe. No time period was specified for the rates, though they are comparable to the monthly subscriptions of other massively multiplayer games.

The developer also noted that the game will carry a suggest retail price of $59.99 / 49.99 EUR, with Funcom set to receive a share of the lower wholeshare price from retailers.

Announced yesterday to have entered the manufacturing process, the mature MMO is slated to launch on May 20 in North America, with a European release following on May 23. An Xbox 360 edition will arrive at a later, unspecified date.

Complete with nipples and over-the-top violence, the mature MMO is slated to launch on May 20 in North America, with a European release following on May 23. An Xbox 360 edition will arrive at a later, unspecified date.

"Age of Conan has been in development for a long time, as with all MMOs, but we have spent that time well and ended up with a game we are incredibly proud of," said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. "We believe we have truly succeeded in realizing the vision of the game."

For more on Age of Conan and its real-time battle system, scope out our CES impressions along with our previous preview and interview.

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The forthcoming MMO is currently scheduled for a North American release, on May 20 on the PC, with a 360 release coming at a later date.

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The forthcoming MMO is currently scheduled for a North American release (with nipples intact) on May 20 on the PC, with a 360 release coming at a later date.

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