Ten Ton Hammer took some time to track down Fredrik Malmberg, the president and CEO of Paradox Entertainment and spoke with Fredrik about the latest info on the Conan movie and how it might be tied in with the Age of Conan MMORPG.
Ten Ton Hammer: Casting Conan is a real challenge, as he is not just some muscle bound brute in the stories. What traits would you look for in an actor who could possibly play this part?
Fredrik: Errrr… acting capabilities? What I mean is first and foremost, [we look for] a good actor. Second, this needs to be somebody who understands Conan’s character. Preferrably, with a personal depth. Physical presence, a big guy but in my mind but not a bodybuilder. Someone with a rugby-player physique, you know? Ultimately, this is a director ’s choice because the chemistry must work between them.
They are hoping to announce a director in January, and have budgeted the script and looked at locations for shooting. The majority will be done in Bulgaria and some in China, and the film start date is set for June for a summer 2010 release.
Green Pixels tells the tale of a couple who met in EverQuest and over time developed a relationship and got married. We’ve all heard that one before, but hey, you get to hear it again at Green Pixels!
Matt St. Gelais, a 37-year-old manager of an office supply store, and Liz Rasmussen, a 40-year-old licensing officer for a national trucking company, met online while playing a massively multiplayer role-playing game. This past July, they made their relationship a little more formal: They got married.
I’d just like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season. I look forward to 2009 and finding out more about The Secret World, as do you all I’m sure! In the meantime, I hate bare news, so I may start posting a few scraps from the other Funcom games out there. Have a good one all!
In a new interview with Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas, GameIndustry.biz was informed that both the console version of Age of Conan and The Secret World are both still on track. They also get into the recent Funcom layoffs, and the CEO explains that the need for QA is normally reduced when the first six months of a live project is over.
“The changes in the US Customer Service operations are partly a result of certain functions being moved to Europe as well as adjustments to reflect the current subscriber levels. Improvements in the game have also led to less demand for Customer Service personnel, something we are of course very happy about.”
The evolution of Age of Conan since launch has been useful for the team working on The Secret World, influencing design and providing improved technical assistance, said Arne Aas.
“The development of The Secret World continues and we are expanding the development team at a steady pace.
“This is a very exciting project for us, and the team working on it has been able to draw on the innovations of Age of Conan for quite some time now – especially from a technological standpoint.”
I noticed some Funcom job updates on the Oslo Job Listings Page. They are primarily for The Secret World but also include a 360 programmer and a Text Coordinator for Age of Conan.
Art
Assistant Art Director – The Secret World
Concept Artist – The Secret World
Graphic Designer (Web)/ GUI Artist – The Secret World
MMORPG.com introduces a new category to their 2008 Reader’s Choice Awards. This isn’t a vote for your favourite game necessarily, rather a vote for the feature you felt added the most to the MMO genre in terms of gameplay, fun and future potential. Up for nomination:
› Council of Stellar Management (EVE)
› Combo Combat (Age of Conan)
› Public Quests (Warhammer Online)
› Ship Combat (Pirates of the Burning Sea)
MTV Multiplayer follows up on Funcom’s recent staff cuts to find out if they will affect Age of Conan PC or the Xbox 360 version of the game. Erling Ellingsen had the following to say:
“Our aim is for this to not affect development of ‘Age of Conan,’ or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking firmly to our plans. The Xbox 360 version of the game is still in production, but as before we are not committing to any specific dates. I wish I could give you more information, but I can’t at the time being.”
Gamasutra has an interesting interview up with Aleksander Grondal, producer of the upcoming Battlefield Heroes, a free to play entry in the Battlefield (FPS) series. They were inspired by Korea’s free-to-play MMO model, but how do you make Battlefield free? They intend to run ads on the website and in the game design, such as the loading screens, but not in the actual game itself. You’ll also be able to do microtransactions for real currency.
Aleksander’s own development background includes working at Funcom on Anarchy Online and Dreamfall.
“I think I’ve brought something new into DICE, because they have been all about shooters, and we’re adding a sort of MMO approach. I think that together we make a good fit for Heroes.”
