MMO specialist Funcom, the developers of Conan Exiles, were on the verge of bankruptcy. But then salvation came in the form of naked barbarians!
Conan Exiles is a full success for the Norwegian developer Funcom. The barbarian survival MMO recouped its production costs within a few days and sold as many copies in the first four weeks as they had initially planned for the entire year.
Funcom was on the brink of ruin
But Conan Exiles is not just a top success for Funcom; it was the savior of the company! Without the brash barbarians and their survival struggle, Funcom would not have survived. The company was financially at its end despite (or because of) titles like The Park or the Lego MMO Minifigures Online.
Joe Bylos, Creative Director of Funcom, said at GDC 2017 that they were on the verge of bankruptcy. They had to borrow money from investors to pay employees’ salaries. It was clear: The next game has to be a hit, or we are done.
Develop a hit or die
But what should this saving hit game look like? This question was not taken lightly. Rather, the developers closely examined the market using SteamSpy and sought a genre that could save the company even with moderate success. This genre was survival games.
“These games sell very well…,” Bylos remarked, “… but they are often not of high quality.” In this niche, Funcom could definitely succeed, but they also wanted to develop a survival game that felt a bit more like Skyrim. Thus, they worked for 13 months to offer an Early Access version on Steam in February 2017.
Conan Exiles – Naked penises and breasts saved Funcom!
What followed is well-known: Conan Exiles sold extremely well and brought salvation for Funcom. The success surprised everyone, including Funcom’s Vice President Lawrence Poe: “We had no idea how quickly the success would come.”
According to Funcom, the great interest in Conan Exiles was primarily due to mischievous streamers. These had dived into the game’s nudity feature with childlike joy and were “completely out of control” with wildly flapping penises and bouncing breasts raging through the barbarian wilderness.
From that point on, Funcom knew: We are saved!
Also interesting: Conan Exiles – Funcom still has big plans for the penis!
