Age of Conan’s devs seems to be busy with the expansion, yes, but also with the development for console, which was previously scheduled to launch together with the PC version, but then postponed for an unknown date. No words about it had reached out until now, where CVG reported the news coming directly from FunCom and Game Director Craig Morrison.

“We obviously had many more challenges than we envisioned getting our technology to adapt to the console platform. We are still working on it for the future, and we see it as a potentially valuable platform for our games. Whether we have missed a window for Age of Conan itself remains to be seen”.

He also said: “There are many challenges inherent in [developing for console] that many MMO developers haven’t mastered yet.

“… It is currently an untapped market, but as time goes on I think we will start to find good solutions to the challenges that we face there. There are enough people exploring it and working on it that I am confident we will start to see more cross-platform MMO titles.”

We’ll have to see how it develops.

We’ve got a good one this time, folks. We managed to have a few words with FunCom’s Craig Morrison, Age of Conan’s Game Director, about the upcoming expansion for the MMO, called Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer. The questions were a compilation of questions that were sent to us by players, so we hope it addresses some of the players’ curiosity and concerns.

First of all, hello Craig, and thank you for giving us the chance to ask you a few questions.  We’ve asked a few players that are currently part of the playerbase of Age of Conan to formulate questions they’d like to ask you, and we’ve selected a few for you now. The upcoming expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, is certainly making all fans and players talk about it and a lot of us are curious to see what comes out, but first things first. Onto the questions!

GB: The world of Conan is very rich in lore and possibilities that could be included in the game. What made the devs choose Khitai as the main focus of the expansion, instead of perhaps connecting areas that are currently present within the in-game map, such as Nemedia or Zingara, or perhaps expanding existing areas such as Stygia and Aquilonia? What made Khitai the best option in the eyes of the developers?

Craig: Quite a few things appealed about Khitai, but the main driving force behind the decision was that it would allow us to create something much more visually diverse. Taking the Chinese and Korean themes allowed us to create these regions with a very different visual style from the original parts of the game world. The fact that Khitai wasn’t fully drawn out in Howard’s original tales was also appealing as it did allow the writers and designers to focus more on the core tenants of Howard’s lore, like his disdain for how easily society is corrupted, and get to incorporate that in our own way into the gameworld. This Khitai is the perfect example of an empire on the road to ruin, something that was really at the heart of many of the themes of Howard’s original lore.

There are of course all those other areas, we could have explore, but I think we made the right choice, and there will be nothing stopping us exploring some of those other areas in the future.

GB: The new expansion adds a few new hunting areas, new mounts and a new race. Is there anything else players should be looking for with the expansion, in your opinion? What are the things you think are the best new features on the upcoming expansion?

Craig: With the expansion we have very much focused on making it a really strong content addition, so for me the strengths isn’t just so much in the new features, but in the experience as a whole. With hundreds of great new quests, a lot of really interesting new instances and encounters to explore alongside the new features like the factions and the alternate advancement I think that Rise of the Godslayer will most importantly give players a lot more to do, explore and discover as they play through the Khitai content. That was really our goal. I think the game already has a pretty decent feature set, and those we are adding for the expansion were designed to compliment this content addition.

On a personal level I think some of the final, more challenging instances are really shaping up to be interesting encounters and I always like to see how players handle the challenges the designers try and set them. The final encounters in Kara Korum are shaping up to be just that.

GB: Many players complain about the starting area, such as Tortage, being repetitive after the first few tries. Will the expansion bring a starting area such as Tortage, that players can choose where to go when creating new characters? If not, are there plans for something similar in the future?

Craig: I think there you have to realize that Tortage functions as a new player area, and there I think it performs quite well, and is an area we constantly get very good feedback on. Yes, as with any content it starts to pale a little after multiple repeat players, but at the end of the day that is a secondary concern to it actually being appealing to new players. I don’t think we will consider adding a different new player experience anytime soon. We have considered some means for players who have already explored each of the archetype paths to possibly skip Tortage with future characters, but we haven’t got any firm plans there at the moment.

GB: One of the things that most MMO players ask is for end-game content, and a constant array of options so they do not feel like they’re repeating the same thing over and over again. The Rise of the Godslayer is bringing a few new options for end-game players, could you list some of the end-game content that players can look forward to? Are there plans of further updates that will bring more options, such as new classes, or more variety in gear?

Craig: I don’t think we will add any new classes into the mix in the near or medium term. I think we already have a good selection there…in terms of new gear I think players will find there is a lot to be earned through the expansion, with lots of new faction gear, new class specific raid gear as well as some new generic sets as you progress.

The new content in the expansion will add a lot of content for the highest level players, with many new six man instances and new raids. With the instanced encounters we split them up into more focused sections, so where you might have traditionally seen one dungeon, we have three, each with a focused and scripted encounter. For example the encounters in the crater at Kara Korum contain some of the most challenging instances we have added yet (they are also really interesting from a story point of view) and I think players will find them a really fun challenge. We have tried to build on the dynamic elements we used in content like Xibaluku and Tarantia Commons and craft even more focused boss encounters that come with some interesting game-play challenges.

GB: One of Age of Conan’s biggest qualities is the possibility of catering to more than one group of players. There’s PvP, there’s PvE and there is Role-Play. We’ve seen with the current 1.06 update, more choices for roleplayers, with social clothing, private instancing and so on. Will the expansion and further updates bring more choices, such as player housing, more emotes and customizable clothing?

Craig: The expansion is very much a content expansion, and things like that are much more likely to be added through live game updates, just like Guild Renown. That’s not to say there might not be the odd item to find here and there in the expansion, but there aren’t any major features we haven’t talked about yet…and player housing would be a major addition! It’s something I’d like to do at some stage, but so far we have had content and features to work on that we felt were much more important to the game.

GB: The Age of Conan’s expansion is a certainty now and it will soon be available to players. Are you guys at Funcom already planning on doing more expansions in the future for the game?

Craig: Any MMO title is a long term commitment, we see these games being run for years (Our own Anarchy Online for example is fast approaching it’s ninth anniversary), so yes, we very much see there being more expansions, both in the form of live game updates and expansion or booster packs and we always have one eye on the future.

In terms of immediately after the expansion we actually have several things that have been prepared, so we have a choice with where we go there that we haven’t quite finalized yet. We will most likely see how players react and adapt to the expansion content before we decide which addition to the live game we will do first.

GB: We’ve seen a lot of adventuring areas on the beta testing of Rise of the Godslayer. Can you tell us what other types of areas we’ll be seeing in the expansion? Such as new dungeons, instances or resource areas?

Craig: There aren’t any new specific resource areas in the expansion, that was something we wanted to retain in the original lands. Each of the gameplay regions beyond the Gateway to Khitai each has a selection of encounters. There is a great series based around the war monk monastery in the Northern Grasslands for example, which has three separate instances, and there are also some fantastic encounters based around the crater in Kara Korum, that are key to the overall storyline of the expansion and features some really interesting encounters in terms of gameplay.

With the instanced encounters for the expansion we have split them up into more focused sections, so where you might have traditionally seen one dungeon, we have three, each with a focused and scripted encounter. We really wanted the focus to be on the encounters and the more interesting and dynamic elements that we can bring into play there.

GB: Another thing most players ask is about a possibility of increasing both personal and storage slots. With the addition of social clothing, many players seem to be having a little bit of storage issues. Do you guys plan on giving players such an option to expand their storage further, or perhaps link them within characters in the same account?

Craig: Storage is always something players want more of, and we have to control within reason to ensure that the databases don’t get overrun with ‘stuff’. We are exploring several options in this regard, but any changes there will most likely come after the expansion.

GB: What are your plans before and beyond the expansion? What can players expect in the form of updates until the expansion is released, and what kind of updates can they expect after the expansion is released?

Craig: There will be an expansion preparation update in the form of the 1.07 update. This is mainly just a maintenance update to get things ready for the expansion content and make sure all the players have the relevant parts needed to access the expansion when it opens.

After the expansion launches we will of course be releasing updates to support that. As with any update on this scale we will be prepared to be able to respond and tweak and adjust as required once the players get their teeth into the content!

GB: Last but not least. Currently we have a “first half of 2010″ launch date. Can you give us a more specific timeline on when the expansion will be available for players?

Craig: Afraid not! That is one of those things I’m not at liberty to mention until it is officially announced by our Sales and Marketing folks. I can though say that we are still very much on target for that general time frame.

Thank you very much Craig, and the guys at FunCom for their availability!

Mortal Online is a new MMORPG being developed by Star Vault. The trailer we’ll be showing by the end of this post announces the official public beta for the game.

Mortal Online uses the Unreal Engine 3 and it claims to offer a system that should give players much more freedom than current MMOs do. The characters can have different races, but they will not have levels or classes: the growth and development for each character is done with an ability-based system. Each character can use more than one character, that will be connected with each other through a common “soul” called Deva (it’s still not known how this feature will work).

Mortal Online should be launched on March. If you want to know more about the beta, visit the official site.

The Star Wars fans that were hoping for the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic still this year will be disappointed to know that LucasArts has officially confirmed EA’s John Riccitiello’s words: the main MMORPG that EA’s president mentioned was indeed Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it will be launched only on 2001, Spring more precisely.

LucasArts has also confirmed that during 2010 there will be many updates on the progress of the game. But I’m sure the fans would have preferred to have the game installed this year. Oh well.

There are many, many fans waiting impatiently for the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was previously rumored to launch on September. But the words from John Riccitiello on a press-conference for EA makes us ponder whether the launch date is still that one. Riccitiello has declared in a very generic way that EA’s main MMO is currently scheduled to launch during the Spring of 2011.

Since the September date wasn’t officially confirmed by EA, we have to wonder. And wait for any official confirmation on the launch date, hoping that they will not make fans wait a whole new year for the game, of course.

Atari has published another video about Star Trek online, which we will show you by the end of this post. Star Trek Online is an MMORPG being developed by Cryptic Studios (resopnsible for City of Heroes and Champions Online), and its storyline is placed 30 years after the events of the Star Trek: Nemesis movie.

The game will be launched on February 4th, 2010. Enjoy the video!

After a long time without any news, we now bring you a new trailer for Guild Wars 2. The game is the sequel for the successful Guild Wars, an MMORPG that sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. Guild Wars 2 should feature a better graphic engine, featuring 3D landscapes and Havok physics, five playable races, an enhancement of abilities that will be less in number but more refined.

But still no launch date, unfortunately. We’ll leave you to the video, however. Enjoy!

The Star Wars fans will certainly remember the planet Alderaan, which was somewhat of a green Paradise before the Empire destroyed it. Well, Alderaan will be part of the new Star Wars: The Old Republic, although thinking of what would happen in the “future” could make some of the fans sad.

In any case, we won’t be saying much, just leaving you to the pictures. Before that, we’ll remind you that the MMORPG based on the Star Wars saga will be launched on the second half of 2010. Enjoy!

Click on the thumbnails to view the full image

Atari has finally announced the launch date for Star Trek Onilne. The game will be launched on February 4th, 2010.

Star Trek online is an MMORPG that is being developed by Cryptic Studios (City of Heroes, Champions Online) and it takes place 30 years after the events from the movie Star Trek: Nemesis. We’ll show you the debut trailer for Star Trek Online at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Finally, after almost a year of the announcement of the development for Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare shows us a series of videos and images that portray the Jedi class.

If you’re one of those who are waiting anxiously for the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic by the second half of 2010 but don’t know what class to choose, perhaps some of those videos will help you choose. Enjoy!