Funcom has announced that Age of Conan will be delayed until March 2008 for release. The reason given is that due to feedback on their beta servers, they will be improving the combat system, to give casting a stronger presence and to make the combos (and combat in general) easier to learn.

This is both good news and disappointing. I had been concerned that the game has been so strongly melee-oriented so far, so it's good to see them focus on the fun factors associated with casting. Many folks have also been worried that AoC's combat may be too hard for the casual players, so the work they're putting into the learning curve is encouraging.

But overall myself and much of my guild has been ready to bounce from WoW to AoC soon. We'll have to stay put for a bit longer, but that's the risk with a new game in development.

As for March? That's no surprise, if there is a delay they're going to try to hit the next significant sales month and Jan-Feb are notoriously slow. If they can't release for the Christmas season then early Spring is the logical choice.

This is also going to put the releases of Warhammer Online, Wrath of the Lich King and Age of Conan very close together.