Conan Exiles hit 480k unit full-year target in 28 days

Funcom will step up investment in Conan Exiles after the survival game achieved its full-year sales target within 28 days of launching on Steam Early Access.

The Norwegian company had forecast 480,000 sales across 12 months, but Conan reached that total between January 31 and the publication of Funcom's Q4 financial results yesterday. The game recouped its production costs in less than a week, and it has managed to sustain much of the momentum that carried it to 320,000 sales in its first fortnight on Early Access.

Conan Exile's production costs up to launch were $4.5 million, according to Funcom's financial report, and the speed with which that was covered has convinced the company to make a greater investment over the next 12 to 24 months.

This will amount to between $5 million and $10 million in 2017 and the early part of 2018, covering content and technical updates, PR and marketing, and launches on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Funcom expects Conan Exiles to remain in Early Access for the rest of this year.

This is a well timed success for Funcom. The company's financial results illustrated the decline of its current live games - The Secret World, Age of Conan and Anarchy Online - leading to a significant year-on-year drop in Q4 revenue. Funcom plans to relaunch The Secret World, complete with a host of improvements, in the first half of this year, with launch activities expected to begin in March.

There are two other projects currently in development: another game based on the Conan IP at the company's Oslo studio, and another, more mysterious title at its North Carolina office. Funcom expects to grow its team from 103 people to as much as 130 by the end of calendar 2017.