On October 23rd a new generation of gamers will become acquainted with a mythical hero named Conan. For a lot of us, the first image we get when we hear the name is Arnold Schwarzenegger running around in a loin cloth dispatching evil doers, while that is cool, this Conan is of a different sort. The Conan in question for this latest video game is none other than the Conan of the Robert E. Howard literary works, and those books will provide the setting and story of our video game hero. Before players get their chance with the full game, they will get the chance to take Conan for a spin thanks to X-Box Live.
Rumor has it that the bodies never leave the screen.
THQ announced that on October 8th gamers will be able to download a preview of the Conan game thanks to the X-Box Live Marketplace; it’s a free process and takes a short time to download a game. Once the game is on your X-Box hard drive your set to play. The demo gives players the chance to take Conan through a rescue mission while trapped on a plague ridden island. In order to escape the island safely, Conan must rescue the crew of a ship owned by a beautiful warrior queen (naturally) from deadly pirates. There are reported to be over 100 attack combinations possible in the game, and the demo will display a few in order to whet the appetite of potential gamers.
This could be a boss character, or a potential victim.
X-Box Live Arcade/ Marketplace have revolutionized the marketing process behind gaming, allowing players never before seen access to games before their hit shelves. With this trend only in its beginning stages its anyone’s guess as to what the landscape will look like for marketing in just the next five years, THQ (as well as other companies) has gotten wise quickly and smartly delivered a demo of Conan to gamers early. The decision and it’s timing was especially important in terms of the Conan game, “The 75th anniversary of Robert E. Howard's first published story and the popularity of Conan provide a great backdrop for us to offer consumers a power-packed, action adventure video game this year," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. "The playable demo will give players a chance to step into the world of Conan, sample a variety of deadly attacks and explore an environment recognizable to fans of Howard's original stories." The PS3 demo will be available on the Playstation Network on October 11th.
