Bit on the nose, eh? Swords sharpened, muscles glistening, Conan Exiles was ready to make the jump to the Epic Games Store today, arriving with the fanfare of a spot in Epic’s free game rotation. Pity, for the old warrior has been knocked back by a mighty blow. Funcom’s sword-swinging survival sandbox has been pushed out of its new home indefinitely – and when it arrives, it won’t be marching for free.

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Tencent are already shareholders in Riot Games, Epic, Ubisoft, and plenty of other game companies. Though already the largest shareholders in Conan Exiles developers Funcom, Tencent want to buy out all other shareholders to gain full ownership. Funcom welcome the move, looking to expand plans for an upcoming Dune game.

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What is best in a multiplayer survival sandbox? To crush your enemy, see him driven before you, and hear the adulation of the arena’s assembled crowd because all survival sandboxes must end in a fight club eventually. That’s now possible in Conan Exiles even on PvE servers, thanks to a new item added in an update yesterday. The new Battle Standards let players create duelling zones where anyone can issue PvP challenges to anyone. Build an arena, slam down the flag, and start rumbling. The update has added more, but frankly my interest is in the inevitable recreations of Kirk and Spock’s duel in Star Wars Episode II: Amok Time.

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Oh hello! John is away in San Francisco gobbling up gum left on the underside of chairs at the Game Developers Conference, so I’m filling in for our regular rundown of last week’s top-selling games on Steam. As is customary for weeks where I need to take over, the charts are full of the surprises he grumbles they never have. What can I say, John – video games must make more of an effort for me. And for goodness’ sake, leave that gum. I don’t care if Sid Meier himself stuck it there.

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Frank Herbert’s sci-fi world of vast sand worms and magical spacedrugs and political intrigue and swordfights and Kyle MacLachlan with a pet spacepug and Sting posing in his pants is being digitised again. Funcom, the Norwegian crew behind Conan Exiles and The Secret World, today announced that they’re planning to make several video games based on Dune. We best know Dune round these parts for Dune II, Westwood’s seminal 1992 real-time strategy game which set the blueprint for Command & Conquer and Warcraft and so on. Funcom’s first Dune game is due to be some sort of “open world multiplayer” game, so perhaps another sandbox survival sorta thing?

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Run, jump, grab a thousand gubbins, escape from prison guards and hear the lamentations of their women – sounds like a fun weekend. Humble have just unveiled their next three ‘early unlock’ games for their Humble Monthly subscription service, and it’s an impressive little trio. $12 gets you Funcom’s survival sandbox Conan Exiles, Gears for Breakfast’s Mario-esque platformer A Hat In Time and Mouldy Toof’s jailbreak sim The Escapists 2 now, plus a bundle of mystery games at the end of the month.

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We’ve just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It’s a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you’ll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.

2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets. (more…)

Crom would be pleased to see a game as scrappy as Conan Exiles doing so well. Developer/publisher Funcom declared today that the barbarian fantasy survival sandbox is their fastest-selling game to date, now having shifted 1.4 million copies in total. The studio aren’t resting on their laurels either, announcing some new Roman-themed cosmetic DLC, along with reiterating their promise of major free updates to the game, including new dungeons, bosses and a pet-taming system on the horizon.

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Please sit down. Make sure you have a friend with you, or available on the telephone. Plunkbat isn’t at number one. Somehow, it’s something even more boring. But the rest of the charts are a splendid sight! No GTA, no CS:GO, no Witcher 3, no Skyrim! (more…)

A pleasingly fresh collection of games dominating the top ten Steam moneymakers this week, along with the shock absence of Counter-Strike: GO! No shocks at the #1 spot, but a couple of surprising appearances in the top 5. (more…)