Beta Applications Open For Age of Conan MMO

Co-publishers Funcom and Eidos have announced the official opening of the public beta for the PC version of their highly anticipated forthcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. First announced as a co-published effort in July, SCi/Eidos will be publishing the boxed version of the game in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, while Funcom will retain the digital distribution rights to the game, and will operate servers and provide customer service for the game, as well as collect and retain subscription revenues. The game is currently being slated for an October 30th release. In December of last year, Funcom also announced that the game had been greenlighted for development on the Xbox 360. While no more developments have yet been announced for the console version, the PC version, opening beta applications today, is being positioned as a showpiece for the forthcoming Windows Vista PC operating system, and has garnered a number of accolades from the consumer press, including “Best MMO of E3” from IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy and Yahoo. Said Funcom founder and Conan director Gaute Godager, "We have been waiting for this day since we started development on Age of Conan, and it will be an epic moment as we see large waves of players charging into Hyboria. As we get ready to unleash the most brutal MMO ever created we will let an increasing amount of players test our creation. With extended Beta testing for months to come we can hone and polish based on large-scale feedback, allowing us to fulfill the potential of the game." To apply for a slot in the beta program, interested players can visit the official Age of Conan site.