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Age of Conan expansion due before July

Funcom says Rise of the Godslayer add-on for fantasy MMORPG will arrive during the first half of 2010; reports Q3 loss of $9.6M on revenue of $5.7M.

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The launch of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures last year provided a healthy infusion of riches to Funcom's coffers. However, the Norwegian developer has struggled to maintain interest in its dark fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and that fact is evidenced in Funcom's third-quarter earnings report.

Expect Age of Conan's first expansion sometime during the first half of next year.
Expect Age of Conan's first expansion sometime during the first half of next year.

Reporting on its July-September earnings period this week, Funcom said revenues came in at $5.69 million, down from the $18.1 million brought in during the same period in 2008. Having turned a $3.27 million profit during Q3 2008, Funcom reported a $9.63 million loss for the same three-month period in 2009.

Providing a look ahead to the remainder of its fiscal year, Funcom said that it expects fourth-quarter revenues to fall in line with its Q3 earnings. During its in-progress October-December period, Funcom expects revenues to come in between $4 million and $5 million.

Still, the Norwegian developer has a number of ways to boost revenue in the coming year. Namely, Funcom said today that it expects to launch Age of Conan's first expansion, the Asian-themed Rise of the Godslayer, during the first half of 2010. The company also said that in October, it had been awarded a $270,000 grant by the Norwegian Film Fund to prototype and develop "an Xtreme sports" MMOG.

Unfortunately, Funcom did not provide an update to the release window of its other upcoming MMORPG, The Secret World. In September, the developer said that it had pushed the game's launch back by "some months." The announcement came alongside word that the developer had enacted a 20 percent reduction to its workforce as part of its efforts to cut costs by moving development teams to low-cost locations, such as Montreal.

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