"Therefore, we’ve taken the decision to hold off on developing new content and features while we focus on improving the game from a technical and quality-of-life standpoint. At this point, we believe we need to put more focus into making the game better, not just bigger.
Our goal for the next update is to start focusing on resolving bugs and increasing stability. We will release this update in spring 2025 and give you more insight into what to expect as we get closer to release. This update will be a key step in addressing the game’s core issues and laying a stable foundation for the future.
As part of this, we also want to hear more from you. Your feedback and bug reports have always helped identify what we need to examine, and we have a list of things we want to tackle for the next update. That said, we will continue to listen to you on all our channels and we’d like to hear your opinions."
If this means Funcom fixes ALL the bugs that have been reported, (and @Kikigirl deserves a huge THANK YOU for compiling that list), then its worth the wait. If Funcom only fixes a few and moves on, then no, that’s not good news.
Action speaks louder than words. Lets see what Funcom will do.
For real, this is HUGE. I am looking forward to it.
mmm
Sounds like the producer’s letter from every other year where they say “we are listening to you and are going to not be dumb anymore”
And then guess what they do
I can’t see April or May from here.
hahaha
Because we can trust Funcom to -“Improve”- It’s -own- game.
The more the touch things, the more people leave the game.
While I am going to have to be a bit more realistic here, I doubt that ALL bugs that have been reported will be fixed. But if even a sizable chunk of the two lists that @Kikigirl has compiled end up getting fixed that is still MASSIVE!
Not really. Never before have they straight up said “we are going to stop expanding the game and focus on fixing it” before. Not once in it’s entire history. So that alone makes this quite a bit different. They aren’t just saying “we are listening”, they are saying “yeah, we royally fvcked things up and we need to get shyte back on track”.
I’ll reserve judgement until they’ve put their money where their mouth is. I’m hoping for the best, but I’ve been around long enough to know better than putting too much faith into words written by a game company.
This one would forgive anyone who finds that a hard sell.
There have been lots of things said that then failed to materialize.
/End specific response.
However…
Acknowledgement of the technical debt they have been building up is a positive thing.
Understanding, Patience, and Trust have been steadily eroded and supplies are meager, they were mangled, and then abandoned to bleed out. However, if this update does deliver on the improved QoL (and hopefully there is an understanding that moving dyes to the bench and mucking with the inventory UI was not a QoL improvement) and performance, that will go a long way towards repairing that.
Also, who is this Rodney Harper?
Project Director for Conan Exiles, seems he has been with the company since 2022.
Not to be unnecessarily vicious, but has he lied to us before?
What sort of correlation have we seen between his words and the game we then played?
While this one does not wish to be entirely cynical, this one does believe that Funcom has earned the jade glasses this one views thru here.
But if he has already demonstrated that his words align with what happens, then this one can leave those glasses on the shelf.
Either way, this update will probably be the make or break for this one. The later cluckery of the Age of War caused this one to cease playing for themselves, and only for others who share this game.
If we get another bad update, no amount of comrades will be able to keep this one playing unless they are also paying for this one’s troubles.
And it is good to have at least some communication regarding intended direction.
Exactly, which is why I completely agreed with @Bodin when he said:
I was merely pointing out the differences between past communications and this one since @arktara seems incapable of grasping the two. But as I have agreed with Bodin, I also agree with you, their actions MUST follow and back up their words.
Definitely sounds like maintenance mode to me.
Generally speaking maintenance mode would not include updates nor fixes to current bugs in the game. So you can by all means think whatever you choose but it would be inadvisable to voice said opinions when past procedures would point towards the opposit. Take Age of Conan or The Secret World for example, when they went into maintenance mode do you honestly think that funcom spent money and man hours into putting out updates solely on fixing bugs? 
You do not have to do all that thinking, the answer is no.
We’ll find out soon enough as to whether or not they start the fix where the root of the problems began.
If that doesn’t happen, this game will die because of incompetency, stupidity and arrogant hubris.
The amount of money this game generates and to run so poorly for so many on all platforms had to be an embarrassment. They had to say something to quiet the angry villagers. Proof is in the pudding as they say. Optimistic but wary.
translating from corporate to normal human language this “letter” means
“Its over, no more new content, no more work on game, just leave one or two people to hotfix and reanimate game when servers go down .”
I like that we got a root cause, changing from what was intended as a one off title to game as service, of why issues grew. Be interested to see how much under the hood is being “recoded” to fit the new strategy.
But also, no new content might kill it overall in the market place. They should at least use current assets (that aren’t fibar code) and mic yhings up for freshness. Change some loot drops, tweak a few of thebold dingeons as far as difficulty. Nothing brand new, but the illision of different and fresh afyer 7 years with minimal coding needed.
I don’t want to be negative but in the producer letter of 2021 they stated that they created a team dedicated to stabilisation of the game :
“For that purpose, we have been growing our staff over the year and created a new Live team that is dedicated to the maintenance, support, and daily operations of the game. Thanks to this, we’ve been able to focus on addressing your feedback regarding critical bugs and Quality of Life additions that had not been possible in the past.”
and in 2022 we had this line in the producer’s letter :
“With the accomplishments mentioned above also came some challenges. One challenge we continue to have is with system performance across the board on all platforms, especially consoles. In 2023 we are focusing more on optimization and bug fixing to improve the player experience.”
and this line specifically for mods :
“However, we heard the feedback and in future releases, we will be communicating more about changes affecting mods with better-advanced notice, along with releasing updated documentation.”
So yes it was not said that they would stop expanding , but it’s also not the first time they acknowledge the bugs and screw ups . Yet to this day we still have end of week / just before holidays patches/modification to settings that can’t be countered immediately as it’s the week end or holiday and nobody is left to ensure a safety net / In case of emergency situation . 
Edit : also let’s not forget the producer’s letter from 2023 that is quite telling to in terms of acknowledgement of screw ups :
"Despite these successes, we faced some challenges as well. We recognize that some of our releases have not been as smooth as we would like and affected your experience. Recently, the launch of Age of War Chapter 3 was hampered by some significant issues that needed urgent attention. This is not acceptable, and we are implementing steps to ensure each update meets your expectations, such as managing scope more effectively and improved testing procedures.
As we continue the journey into 2024, our commitment to you is as strong as ever: For one, performance and optimization is a constant focus, and we are committed to keeping a focus on console performance and game optimization.
To improve our communication further, we are also starting a new initiative to run player surveys after each Chapter release, the first of which arriving next week. "
No, that would only be translating it into doomsayer “THE SAY IS FALLING” unfounded gibberish based purely on… the 
you pulled out of your arse.
UNTIL PROVEN ONE WAY OR THE OTHERS NEITHER YOU NOR ANYONE ELSE KNOWS WHAT THE LETTER MEANS SO STOP PRETENDING THAT IT SAYS ANYTHING THAT IT LITERALLY DOES NOT SAY
Sorry, it reads like the way to typical funcom placation.
Not buying it
Not getting my hopes up to be disappointed for the umpteenth time.