That’s because “dead” is a meaningless term at this point. Will they keep updating the game? Well, duh, they said they would. So the game is “not dead”. Are there people still playing the game? Well, duh, there are people still playing Brood War. So the game is “not dead”.
The problem with the whole “the game is dead” discourse is that it’s impossible to agree on what it means.
So no, Conan Exiles is not “dead”. But can we expect things to get significantly better?
Funcom would like to reassure us about that. We’re told that there will be “a Q&A or something similar later this month to address some questions and concerns”, and that’s nice, but actions speak louder than words.
Right now, we don’t have any encouraging actions to draw hope from. The update they released together with this announcement is anemic. I haven’t seen anything to address the most common complaints about serious bugs, nor have I heard anything about turning the tide against the hackers that plague the official servers.
Only time will tell whether Funcom will manage to reverse their track record.