189,000 × 49.99 = ~9.5 million - and that’s just on Steam.
They’ve also gained a third in market value since January.
I also received a thumbs up from Harperson 
My life is now complete. I’ve seen it all. Final achievement unlocked.
I may now ascend… and return only when Conan Exiles 2 is released.
Ew, no. Not until it’s clear that Funcent actually learned something from their mismanagement of various IPs and playerbases.
And if they never learn, well, then maybe the studio will get shut down and someone else can take a crack at these IPs that deserved so much better than what Funcent did with them.
Well, they did say they learned from Conan Exiles. We can see exactly what they learned. 
All jokes aside, none of what we’ve seen so far is a clear indicator that D:A won’t be profitable enough, and “profitable enough” is the only thing Funcent cares about.
Maybe I’m jaded, but I’m pretty sure that “applying everything learned from Conan Exiles” means that the strategy is to go for as much hype as possible, grab the attention and the money from the initial sales, let the playerbase shrink to its stable levels, and use that time to learn what would appeal to the D:A whales so they can profit off of them for the rest of the game’s lifetime.
As players, when Funcent says they’ve “learned from Conan Exiles” and are applying what they learned, we interpret it in terms of gameplay, but I think we’re wrong. I think they’re trying to find a repeatable business formula that would allow them to keep making games like CE and D:A indefinitely and profiting off of them. Rinse and repeat.
And it’s up to the gamers in general to learn their own lesson from that and from other crap we’re seeing in the industry, and shift the tide. Because greedy, soulless corps sure as hell won’t do that on their own.
I do agree about the hype to make the money to possibly make more games, but word of mouth can cripple, even in games, so if they keep this up, it may happen again. I had heard when Conan Exiles was announced to come out, how horrible a company funcom was, how they screwed up in the past games, sucked as devs and on and on AND Conan Exiles was going to save them from bankruptcy or they would crash and burn.
So …if we old time EA players helped save their ■■■■■, why do we get treated like shit?
Because that was then and this is now. In business it’s ‘what have you done for me lately?’ with emphasis on the last word.
My issue is two fold.
I don’t believe they learned anything outside of marketing. The got a more popular IP and so it’s a more popular game but it’s simply eerie how similar these games are as far as public viewpoint. I mean even if you sleep in science class for 7 years, you would think you would know something basic like the solar system in but it’s doesn’t appear anything was learned and we still get biggy releases full of exploits.
Second, the ghosting is just cowardly. If you drop the game, drop the game. Stand by your decisions. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong and you learn something (see above).
Yes, I agree, if you drop it, then drop it. However, FC doesn’t communicate with ce players. A “note” 6 months ago and then nothing…um…yea…ghosting “OooOoooOooo”
I have an answer, but you won’t like it. Here’s why:
Despite all that, you still bought Conan Exiles. That’s why.
Please don’t take that as an attack. It’s meant as constructive criticism and it applies to me as well. In all my years of buying video games, I have never decided to skip buying a game based on the word of mouth about the studio. I’ve skipped games because of reviews and I’ve skipped them based on my own previous experiences with the studio, but never because someone said something about the company.
And that’s what I meant when I said it’s up to gamers to learn our own lesson and change the way these companies do business. We can’t rely on legislation, because cranking out mediocre crap isn’t something you can regulate away with laws, at least not directly, but there are plenty of other ways to handle it.
Word of mouth can cripple sales, but it rarely does. We have, as a society, allowed ourselves to be moved far from where we should be in terms of caring for ourselves and for others. I don’t want to go political, so I’ll skip a lot of what could and should be said about this, but there’s one thing that is safe to say and I believe most of us will agree about: consumers lack good information.
Think about it in terms of video games: where do we get our information? Social media is dominated by influencers and content creators, who adjust their content to stay profitable. Gaming journalism is a similar situation: reviews are rarely allowed to cross certain lines, because you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Hell, even store reviews can and frequently are manipulated.
What we need are more ethical sources of information for consumers, but that’s something that’s hard to establish, harder to maintain, and will get abso-fuсking-lutely wrecked by bottomless corpo pockets if not defended properly.
Anyway, I feel like I’m drifting away from acceptable discussion, so I’ll shut up now.
I think all of this is valid and very on topic.
Touching on so many points that I’ve delved into, researched and have begun to understand. I might be a lifelong gaming enthusiast but that does not make me an expert.
That’s the gist though, most gamers game to have fun. They won’t know about the nuances and intricacies of what the gaming industry does in part, as a whole or individually.
Should they??
Even if they want to learn a bit more then get lost in the hundreds of posts here, Reddit, Steam forums and elsewhere of “game bad derp”. It’s a turn off and they probably go back to building in single player none the wiser. CE is no different than other games in this respect.
I agree that ethical consumer practices and sources of information are what could be the correct paths to take. We won’t get honest accessible gaming journalism anymore either. Even indies that are also vying for their possible cash cow. So going to YT content creators who inject their incredibly biased opinions is easier… Also without getting too political; as long as capitalism is the goal we are hard pressed to get the quality and experiences we want. Especially in light of enshitification. Heavily drenched in Western ideals of consumerism and profit - not that it is devoid in other places but it’s a thing.
Do we deserve? That depends on our perspectives I guess. On one hand I feel like we deserve what we get having made the choice we did. But at the same time I think we also deserve the basic expectation of a working and available game.
So many things to consider with that too. I believe games to be art at their core, or at least I like to think they are despite them being a vehicle or means to an end. If we look at it through the lens of a product then those expectations lie in being sold a working purchase that has support. If the new blender I bought breaks down in 6 months from normal use I have a warranty to fall back on. Here we have promises, some fulfilled, most empty. A reliance instead on an understanding of “we can fix it later”.
I have been taught a valuable lesson indeed. Unfortunate that it has colored my view not only of this company but many others and I am incredibly skeptical of all gaming companies. Have made choices that mostly include abstaining. Sometimes I wish I was as ignorant as I was before everything went down years ago.
Any of us that have learned those hard lessons though? We’re not alone and as much as the average gamer stays willfully ignorant of the truths eventually they hear something, somewhere and it impacts them.
Honestly, this is debatable… on their own both Conan and Dune are niche franchises.
Villeneuve’s films have catapulted Dune back to the front of public awareness, but beyond that it’s presence in the past decades/media has been rather minimal. There’s the books, sure, but none made much of a cultural impact.
Conan on the other had has a steady (though obscure) presence in comics and games since Arnold’s films, mostly held back by it’s ‘problematic’ source material and pulpy nature.
Best thing D:A did was motivate me to go borrow Frank Herbert’s 6 Dune books from the library. By the end I could see he’d changed and improved his writing style noticeably. They were a pleasure to read and quite thoughtful!
So much this. Eventually FC will run out of people that believe them but the worlds a big place… it may take a while unfortunately 
Maybe thats the business model.
Interesting question. My knee-jerk reaction is “of course they should”, but when I sat and thought about it, I realized that this would also expand to all consumers, not just gamers, and that led me to the following question: how much should an average human be expected to know and understand about the world around them?
No one can know and do everything, which is why we’ve learned to specialize and delegate. The problem with that has always been trust. When we put trust into other people and then they get co-opted and/or corrupted, we end up where we are now.
So no, I don’t think gamers should necessarily understand the nuances and intricacies of the gaming industry, but I do think that all consumers should always be vigilant. That vigilance should lead to detecting abuse and organizing to push back against it.
But that’s not going to happen without a hell of a lot of effort to change the society, because we’re not actually taught to be vigilant and to think critically, much less to organize. Indeed, certain forms of organization are actively maligned and suppressed.
What we do and don’t deserve is another fascinating discussion, but without going to deep into it, I can say that I strongly believe that we don’t deserve to be abused. It’s kinda like saying you deserve to get your car stolen if you forget to lock it. Sure, you could have prevented it, but that doesn’t mean you deserve it.
Now, I’m not saying Funcent’s lack of communication is abuse. There are certain things Funcent has done and keeps doing that do veer into abuse in my personal opinion, but the lack of communication about the future of the game isn’t one.
There’s a lot more nuance to explore there, but I’m not really in the mood to write a huge wall of text about it and, even if I was, I don’t think these forums are a good place for that. But thanks for writing a thought-provoking post. I really enjoyed reading it.
Come now, that’s only a moderate wall of text.
Valid point.
I think I’m just a bit salty that a game I like (a lot) has been left in the dust.
The only alternative that fits this “feel” (be it the fantasy theme, the barbaric/basic premise, the ability to… persuade people to work for you after you delicately convince them with a club, building & decorating, etc.) for me has been Soulmask.
Man, it’s barren out there for this, admittedly, kinda of niche combo of genres/game types.
Excellent points 
I really appreciate this discussion and it is very similar to my thinking.
This is something that’s been in my mind since I read it, because well before CE I have had a somewhat fraught connection with Funcom - though I’d not liken it to an abusive relationship; no, that honor is reserved for Capcom.
Honestly, I think the main thing that convinced me to stick around even after AoC and TSW was the idea that this was originally billed as a one-and-done (with dlcs, obviously, but not a continuous service). Funcom’s track record as far as ongoing things speaks for itself.
-insert another joking prod about the AoC crafting revamp here-
I’m sorry but Funcent? haha. People can be so mean but Funcent deserves it.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people.
Hehehe
A fun when we know that Sony announced the game in question on the PS5, of the month of March.
