Age of Conan slays 400,000

In the wake of Blizzard Entertainment's 10-ton (and 10 million player strong) gorilla, World of Warcraft, it's difficult to accurately measure the success of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. However, as several recently launched MMOGs can attest, just getting the first hundred thousand in the door can be a daunting feat.

Of course, no challenge is too great for Conan the Barbarian. Funcom said today that more than 400,000 players have stepped into the online realm of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Not long after the game launched for the PC last week, Funcom stated that the collector's edition for its M-for-Mature-rated MMOG had indefinitely sold out. The Oslo, Norway-based developer expects sales to continue to climb as retailers restock the standard edition of the game.

Based on the savage universe first imagined by Robert E. Howard, Age of Conan drops players into the unforgiving online realm of the Hyborian Age. Assuming the role of one of 12 classes, players begin life as an escaped slave, and, if they're lucky, end it at the point of a sword. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's live gameplay marathon and its accompanying postlaunch impressions.