The Free2Play MMORPG Age of Conan has a new Game Director: the Lead Designer of The Secret World.
The Conan franchise plays a larger role in Funcom’s future plans. At least one new title is set to be released in 2016. However, the MMORPG “Age of Conan” recently experienced a departure: Game Director Matthew Bennet left the project.
The solution presented by Funcom is in-house: Romain Amiel, the Lead Designer of Funcom’s latest MMORPG The Secret World, is taking over the vacant position at Age of Conan. Since there is no information suggesting that Amiel is leaving The Secret World, he is likely doing both jobs simultaneously. The situation is somewhat unclear.
At The Secret World, Amiel became the key figure in March 2015 when the previous Game Director of TSW, Joel Bylos, moved on to another job within the company for the single-player game “The Park“. Since then, the position of “Game Director” at The Secret World has likely been vacant, but Amiel effectively filled it as Lead Designer.
In his letter to the fans of Age of Conan, Amiel now promises no major changes, but reflects a bit nostalgically on his time in the development of Age of Conan. In 2007, when he joined the team, he worked as a game designer for levels 1 to 20 and later contributed significantly to “Rise of the Godslayer”.
Amiel now states that he is getting up to speed. Then he plans to present Funcom’s plans for Age of Conan in 2016.
Mein MMO says: It is understandable that they do not emphasize the fact that Amiel will oversee both MMORPGs in such an important role. Funcom’s financial situation is known to be tense. Both MMORPGs are still profitable, according to the business reports, but revenues decline as they age.
The “dual job for Amiel” could be seen as a cost-cutting measure. Game Director and Lead Designer are typically high-level positions in an MMORPG, and they command significant salaries. However, there may be promotions or restructuring coming in the future, and this unusual situation might just be a temporary solution.
