Age of Conan Expansion Announced

GameSpy brings word from the Leipzig Games Convention that Funcom is hard at work on an expansion pack for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. They’re also working on other updates, which you’ll learn about in the final paragraph below:

The big news is that the studio formally announced the development of the game’s first expansion. No title was provided, nor any details save for a piece of concept art; product manager Erling Ellingsen said that the studio is aiming to encourage speculation amongst the game’s community as to the nature of the expansion, in order to mine their commentary for ideas — a practice that, according to him, Funcom engages in regularly.

The subjects of the artwork revealed are three warriors wearing facemasks encrusted with green stones, wielding curved swords and hooked axes. In the background are standards with dragons rendered on them, and buildings that look vaguely Chinese in design. Producer Thorbjørn Olsen, who is in charge of the expansion’s development, wasn’t answering any questions, but he did later correct our pronunciation of “Khitai,” the eastern country in Robert E. Howard’s lore that seems to serve as a catchall for his rendition of prehistoric East Asia.

Ellingsen and Olsen spoke at length about upcoming content updates to the game. In response to the playerbase’s complaints about sparse high-end content, Funcom will be adding two new high-level zones, and several high-level dungeons. Several existing dungeons will also be seeing some updates in order to make them more memorable — during the demo, Ellingsen name-dropped World of Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons Online, showcasing a strategically complex boss battle to illustrate the former’s influence and some nasty traps to highlight the latter’s.

To see some of the upcoming content additions firsthand, check out these screenshots on Voodoo Extreme.