100,000+ march out for Age of Conan beta

By Casey Lynch Apr 13, 2007, 17:52 GMT

Who knew there were so many barbarians out there?

World of Warcraft, you’d better watch your back.

Funcom, creator of venerated games Anarchy Online and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, has its eyes set on converting some of the now World of Warcraft-obsessed players to its upcoming Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Judging by the response to the Age of Conan public beta that went live last Tuesday, Funcom might be able to do just that.

Last week, over 100,000 gamers enlisted in the open beta test and signed on to make an early trip to Hyboria, with 50,000 of the sign-ups happening in the first 24 hours.

"We’ve been developing this incredible world for years now and today more than 150 people are working hard on achieving the ambitious goals we set out for the game," said Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom and Game Director on 'Age of Conan'. "The team is very excited about the number of gamers who have signed up for the Beta so far, and we can’t wait to see them charging into the brutal battlefields of Hyboria!"

There’s no word yet if Age of Conan will be a part of Microsoft’s PC-Xbox cross-platform plans, but interplatform play would be a serious bonus to the upcoming barbarian game, giving it a leg up on the PC only World of Warcraft and would be a first for MMOs.

Set in the Robert E. Howard’s epic fantasy world, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is due out later in the year on PC and in 2008 on Xbox 360.

Funcom is still taking sign ups for the beta, check here to sign up and find more details.