Funcom has just announced their list of planned server merges, with over half falling by the wayside.  Of the current 49 servers in action, post mergers, funcom’s MMO Age of Conan will be reduced to only 18.

While European servers will see the least drastic of the changes, with 12 servers remaining open due to the language variety (Age of Conan is currently available in English, French, German, and Spanish), the North American and Oceanic regions will be hardest hit.  The current 24 servers operating in these areas will be reduced to six, with only one PvP, and two PvE servers remaining open in the United States.  Each of the 3 servers will combine populations of the six or seven currently operating servers.

Funcom tested this move last week, with a successful merger of the Oceanic servers, and is expected to roll out the US and European mergers this week.

This is a significant point in it’s own right, as this is the first quasi-indication from funcom on how AoC’s numbers have dwindled since launch.  The silver lining in this cloud is that dedicated fans, and even those that may be new to the game will see a much increased server population, thus leading to much player-to-player interactions, and naturally a boosted in-game economy (man, I can’t WAIT to see prices on the Auction House explode).

Funcom says that they’re pushing forward with the high level and end game content (a comment we heard directly from funcom representatives at the Leipzig GC), as well as the first expansion pack.

In some ways I’m a bit taken back by this, in other ways, not.  Funcom’s Age of Conan made a lot of noise prior to the launch, won Voodoo Extreme’s MMORPG of the year 2008, and who could forget Keaira’s playboy appearance?  I personally have only spent a few days with Age of Conan, but found the gameplay and graphics to be stellar.  As noted above, I did hear it directly from funcom reps that the biggest problem they’d experienced with the AoC community were complaints about not enough end-game/epic materials and dungeons.  The last I knew, they were working on this content last summer, but weren’t giving out any definitive dates as to when the content would be released.  Another fact to consider is AoC/funcom’s timing.  When AoC was first released, we knew that Blizzard was rapidly moving forward with the WotLK, but hadn’t given any indications to it’s release date.  Funcom nailed the AoC release date; in so much as WoW players (myself included) had cleared a number of heroic dungeons, collected their purples, and were, well, to be quite honest, a bit bored.  Age of Conan fit the bill and filled the void.  Given the massive numbers that Blizzard is yet again reaching with Lich King success, could many others like me have simply moved AoC down the list again?

Related articles

• Age of Conan servers merging, stock hits 2-year low
• Age Of Conan Tries Its Luck In Korea [Age Of Conan]
• Age Of Conan Adds A Massive Chunk Of Content [Content Update]