Funcom on plans for Conan Exiles on Xbox One

At PAX East we caught up with Funcom's communication manager, Tor Egil Andersen, who had plenty to tell us about the upcoming sensation in the open-world survival genre, Conan Exiles.

During the interview we discussed what it's like working with the community during the early access period, establishing a game like this in the Conan universe, and what sets it apart from similarly themed titles. One thing we were curious about was how they're planning on bringing narrative to a genre not known for its storytelling.

"There is quite a lot of story in the game," Andersen explained, adding that "there's going to be a lot more as we go through Early Access. But there is lore in the game which you can find yourself," as well as NPCs that you can talk to for more info, of course.

We also discussed the roadmap ahead. From the Xbox One version (which is launching in the third quarter of this year), through to fixing bugs and upcoming content updates. With regards to the planned Xbox One launch, Andersen said:

"We moved it back a bit to make it fit with our... We're going to release the Highlands Biome. So we're going to do that at sort of the same time, so people who play the game on Xbox will have an expanded map to play on. So they have more content."

Andersen continued: "A biome, when we expand the map, it will not just mean another area, it'll mean more monsters, new gear, new religions, new things to learn," new resources, "and the temperature system which differentiates between the warm and the cold parts, so you've got to survive those harsh conditions as well."

With the Xbox One launch still some way off in the distance, the studio's immediate concern is the PC version, and it's 500K players. In the sort term fans can expect the following:

"The main things coming this month are a new dungeon, a dyeing system where they can colour their clothes, so they can stand out." Andersen adds that the new dyeing system is "great for clans" looking to identify their friends more easily during combat, although he did warn that it would be an easy system to exploit.

Funcom has detailed the changes coming in the near future in this blog post, and you can see the game in action by watching the Livestream Replay attached below. Finally, we took a closer look at the game in this hands-on preview.