Age of Conan Outsells GTA IV in Europe

G4 reports that Age of Conan eclipsed Grand Theft Auto IV in European sales last week. That bodes well for Funcom's MMO, at least in Europe. Still, I see MMOs as marathons, not sprints. It's all well and good that AoC is selling well fresh out of the gate, but I'll be more interested to hear its subscriber numbers a year from now.

I can attest that AoC is a lot of fun to play. And it's deep. I've got some old EQII friends that started a guild on a PvP server and they just got done completing construction on their guild keep. Yup, you can erect your own structures in AoC. Again, that's not a new idea. Star Wars: Galaxies allowed players to build entire towns. The problem inherent with this MMO concept is that when you enter a player built town, they're always vacant. Understandably, players don't spend their gaming time wandering the streets that have no name. Instead, they lay some pipe, slap up some dry wall, and then hit the road for more adventuring. So I'll be curious to see of Funcom solved the Ghost Town phenomenon in their game.