Producer's Letter: 2024 and Looking Ahead
Exiles,
I want to begin with a hearty “Thank You” for your continued support and dedication to Conan Exiles. Your passion for the Exiled Lands and its community is the driving force behind everything we do. As we look back on 2024, we’re also marching on toward the future, and I want to share some important updates about the road ahead for Exiles.
[h2]The Journey So Far
[/h2]
Let’s first take a look at what happened in the world of Conan Exiles this year.
In March, the final chapter of Age of War was released, introducing fatalities and the Sacred Hunt event. Many enemies fell to your murderous intents, but many of you have also fallen victim to the followers of Jhebbal Sag.
In April, we partnered with the Save the Children for Exiles Aid, organizing a series of charity fundraisers for a worthy cause. Thanks to Neebs Gaming, our many content creators, and of course you, our amazing community, we managed to raise 15,000 USD!
In May, we celebrated six years since our official launch, which makes it seven years following the games’ debut in early access! It’s hard to believe it’s been so long, but it’s been an incredible journey and you've been the best companions we could’ve asked for!
In June, Bounty Hunting made a return, added to the game as an event to appear at certain intervals.
In October, Age of Heroes began, adding two hero companions to the game and adding more life to our bases with living settlements.
Last but not least, we were amazed by your creations in the Summer Retreat Building and Yogtober Village contests.
Throughout the year, we’ve also brought many quality-of-life changes, ranging from finding cages in the Exiled Lands as an alternative to using truncheons, letting your followers survive brutal attacks with the down-but-not-out feature, quick- stacking items with a button, and more.
Of course, this was all possible thanks to our amazing community of players, modders, content creators, and of course, server admins. If you have not already done so, make sure to check our Community Letter!
Now, let’s talk about the journey in front of us. . .
[h2]The Path Ahead [/h2]
Conan Exiles was not actually intended to be a "game as a service" when we developed and first released it into Early Access in 2017. We hoped to recoup the costs of development and make enough money for our next project. Instead, it became the biggest success in Funcom's history. With so much interest from the community, we continued building on it for the next seven years. We released many DLCs, major updates and the Isle of Siptah expansion. Aiming for an even longer-term goal in mind, we released Age of Sorcery in 2021, setting out on a new path to deliver content to everyone free of charge at a more regular cadence than before.
Over time, keeping up with this ambitious release plan has become increasingly difficult. Conan Exiles development is complex because we must balance new development with the need to address long-standing issues brought on by years of expanding a game that was never built for it. Technical debt is inevitable in all game development. We've accumulated quite a bit with Conan Exiles due to how the game was initially built and expanded over time.
This led to a shift in the feedback we received from you, which went from requesting new content to addressing stability and bugs. Not surprising, because we've seen issues come up that just shouldn't happen. While we did our best to address them, introducing new features and tackling the accumulation of issues eventually proved unviable.
Therefore, we’ve taken the decision to hold off on developing new content and features while we focus on improving the game from a technical and quality-of-life standpoint. At this point, we believe we need to put more focus into making the game better, not just bigger.
Our goal for the next update is to start focusing on resolving bugs and increasing stability. We will release this update in spring 2025 and give you more insight into what to expect as we get closer to release. This update will be a key step in addressing the game's core issues and laying a stable foundation for the future.
As part of this, we also want to hear more from you. Your feedback and bug reports have always helped identify what we need to examine, and we have a list of things we want to tackle for the next update. That said, we will continue to listen to you on all our channels and we’d like to hear your opinions.
[h2]Thank You [/h2]
We’re making these changes with the long-term health of the game and its community in mind. Thank you for your understanding, patience, and trust as we move forward together to create a more stable and rewarding experience for all Exiles.
Here’s to Conan Exiles in 2025!
Sincerely,
Rodney W. Harper
Project Director, Conan Exiles
I want to begin with a hearty “Thank You” for your continued support and dedication to Conan Exiles. Your passion for the Exiled Lands and its community is the driving force behind everything we do. As we look back on 2024, we’re also marching on toward the future, and I want to share some important updates about the road ahead for Exiles.
[h2]The Journey So Far
[/h2]
Let’s first take a look at what happened in the world of Conan Exiles this year.
In March, the final chapter of Age of War was released, introducing fatalities and the Sacred Hunt event. Many enemies fell to your murderous intents, but many of you have also fallen victim to the followers of Jhebbal Sag.
In April, we partnered with the Save the Children for Exiles Aid, organizing a series of charity fundraisers for a worthy cause. Thanks to Neebs Gaming, our many content creators, and of course you, our amazing community, we managed to raise 15,000 USD!
In May, we celebrated six years since our official launch, which makes it seven years following the games’ debut in early access! It’s hard to believe it’s been so long, but it’s been an incredible journey and you've been the best companions we could’ve asked for!
In June, Bounty Hunting made a return, added to the game as an event to appear at certain intervals.
In October, Age of Heroes began, adding two hero companions to the game and adding more life to our bases with living settlements.
Last but not least, we were amazed by your creations in the Summer Retreat Building and Yogtober Village contests.
Throughout the year, we’ve also brought many quality-of-life changes, ranging from finding cages in the Exiled Lands as an alternative to using truncheons, letting your followers survive brutal attacks with the down-but-not-out feature, quick- stacking items with a button, and more.
Of course, this was all possible thanks to our amazing community of players, modders, content creators, and of course, server admins. If you have not already done so, make sure to check our Community Letter!
Now, let’s talk about the journey in front of us. . .
[h2]The Path Ahead [/h2]
Conan Exiles was not actually intended to be a "game as a service" when we developed and first released it into Early Access in 2017. We hoped to recoup the costs of development and make enough money for our next project. Instead, it became the biggest success in Funcom's history. With so much interest from the community, we continued building on it for the next seven years. We released many DLCs, major updates and the Isle of Siptah expansion. Aiming for an even longer-term goal in mind, we released Age of Sorcery in 2021, setting out on a new path to deliver content to everyone free of charge at a more regular cadence than before.
Over time, keeping up with this ambitious release plan has become increasingly difficult. Conan Exiles development is complex because we must balance new development with the need to address long-standing issues brought on by years of expanding a game that was never built for it. Technical debt is inevitable in all game development. We've accumulated quite a bit with Conan Exiles due to how the game was initially built and expanded over time.
This led to a shift in the feedback we received from you, which went from requesting new content to addressing stability and bugs. Not surprising, because we've seen issues come up that just shouldn't happen. While we did our best to address them, introducing new features and tackling the accumulation of issues eventually proved unviable.
Therefore, we’ve taken the decision to hold off on developing new content and features while we focus on improving the game from a technical and quality-of-life standpoint. At this point, we believe we need to put more focus into making the game better, not just bigger.
Our goal for the next update is to start focusing on resolving bugs and increasing stability. We will release this update in spring 2025 and give you more insight into what to expect as we get closer to release. This update will be a key step in addressing the game's core issues and laying a stable foundation for the future.
As part of this, we also want to hear more from you. Your feedback and bug reports have always helped identify what we need to examine, and we have a list of things we want to tackle for the next update. That said, we will continue to listen to you on all our channels and we’d like to hear your opinions.
[h2]Thank You [/h2]
We’re making these changes with the long-term health of the game and its community in mind. Thank you for your understanding, patience, and trust as we move forward together to create a more stable and rewarding experience for all Exiles.
Here’s to Conan Exiles in 2025!
Sincerely,
Rodney W. Harper
Project Director, Conan Exiles
