I'll Be Back: Funcom Making New Conan Game

There's a scene in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian where the musclebound protagonist asks chum Subotai about religion. "Who do you pray to?" he asks. "I pray to the four winds, and you?" his pal replies. "To Crom... but I seldom pray to him, he doesn't listen." Subotai laughs. Conan ain't happy. Alas, sometimes prayers go unanswered. But maybe you enjoyed Funcom's 2008 MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - and its subsequent 2011 free-to-play guise Unchained - so much that you prayed they'd return to Cimmeria. You did? Friend, your prayers have been answered.

The game won't be announced until January, but Funcom and rightsholder Conan Properties have announced a deal making the Norwegian developers are the "preferred partner for all PC and console games based on the Conan the Barbarian brand and the world of Hyboria."

Funcom CEO Rui Casais said: "We are tremendously excited to be strengthening our relationship with Conan Properties. Conan the Barbarian is undoubtedly one of the world's greatest and most recognizable fantasy heroes, and as game developers, working with such a character and being able to draw from the fantastically detailed world of Hyboria is nothing short of a dream come true."

Or a prayer answered.

While I've not played Funcom's Age of Conan in quite some time, I always found it a fun and engaging MMO, if not slightly temperamental at times. Again, it's been a while, but the fact that it's still going suggests folk are still having fun. The official word is that Funcom's latest Conan project will be "announced to the public in January next year."