Jørgen Tharaldsen, the product director for Funcom, recently sat down with Strategy Informer and answered a few questions regarding Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and its future plans for the Xbox 360 version, which has been expected for quite sometime despite a lack of a concrete release date. Unfortunately for console users who were hoping to get in on the MMORPG action set within the world of Hyboria, they may have to quite a while longer.

During the interview, when asked how the development process of the console port was going, Tharaldsen stated that it was not high on their list of priorities at the moment due to the PC version taking center stage:

“Development on the Xbox 360 version is not our key priority as there are a massive amount of PC gamers already playing the game, and we rightly have the focus on them. While there is a dedicated specialist project team working on Xbox, the PC version will remain our top priority for now.”

He then went on to talk about how the console version will benefit from the different updates made to the PC version and the issues experienced by the team during the PC launch. Should the same thing occur when the Xbox 360 version is released, the team will have the upper hand by knowing how to deal with launch issues should they rear their ugly head. Tharaldsen also elaborated on the differences between the two ports in the area of design and how he feels Age of Conan will fair in the console MMO market:

“Seeing how a console and a PC is inherently very different in control input, HD space, patching cycle, available memory and so on, there are naturally many challenges involved in this work, and while we have overcome many there are more to go, not just from a design and tech standpoint, but also from business, community and marketing. The time will come for MMO games, or similar experiences, to do great on the consoles though, and hopefully Conan will be one of the pioneers in that regards.”

While Age of Conan has been experiencing some problems from the get-go and talks of server mergers are in the works, gamers and everyone in the gaming industry honestly wants this game to succeed, if not only for the fact that it is “Conan” related, but for MMOs in general. Not everyone plays PC games, and a console MMO would definitely pull more gamers into the fold with those who actively participate in online play. Hopefully Funcom can work these kinks out and become one the forerunners in that gene - however do not get your hopes up just yet, because Tharaldsen closed the interview by stating that gamers should not expect the game to arrive on the 360 anytime soon - at least not this year.