As we reported, Funcom announced yesterday that Age of Conan Unchained has seen an influx of players since the game went free-to-play a little more than a month ago. To celebrate the arrival of the two millionth addition to the Barbarian army, the team is giving The King's Reward pack to all players who log in before August 29.

"The reward pack, which can be found in the 'special offers' tab in the store, contains a selection of potions and is yours absolutely free - a thank you from us for your loyalty to King Conan! Remember to be on the correct character when you claim it however, as these are limited to one per account! So make sure you log in and claim your reward!"

It looks like going free-to-play was the right move for Age of Conan. According to Funcom's latest announcement, more than 300,000 new players have joined the game since the Unchained update launched a little more than a month ago.

With the influx of new players, Funcom said today that server activity has quadrupled and game revenues more than doubled during the launch month. "This definitely gives us great hope for the game’s future," said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas.

Next up for Age of Conan: Unchained is an Adventure Pack titled "Savage Coast of Turan" that will act as a tie-in to the Conan the Barbarian movie that hits theaters on August 18. The content update is set 20 years after the movie's storyline and will add all new encounters, the massive new area of Ardashir, new dungeons and raids as well as new armor sets and monsters.

The Age of Conan team has released its development update letter for July, and it's all about PvP. This massive letter outlines the team's PvP plans for the rest of the year, including a variety of system and balance updates. The checklist includes overhauling the resurrection system in mini-games, updating the tracking system, improving siege performance and much more.

In the new content section, the team reveals that new PVP world bosses will appear in the other Border Kingdoms in an update after the next adventure pack launches. As for the Blood and Glory hardcore PvP server ruleset, expect to see some changes to the Consequence system and the gold drop system. 

In case you missed the news, Age of Conan went free-to-play about a month ago. Watch Mike B. aka Fony's recent BFF Report to see the Unchained update in action.

Age of Conan recently went free-to-play, so Mike B. aka Fony decided to explore the Hyborian kingdoms in his latest BFF Report. He covers topics like customization, leveling, combat, PvP and the item shop. Want to know how Fony fared on the Blood and Glory open world PvP server? Then click here to watch BFF Report episode 74!

At the end of the episode, Fony asks for your thoughts on The Secret World, Funcom's upcoming modern day horror MMO. Let him know what you think in the comments!

UPDATE: Age of Conan Unchained is now officially live! Head over to the game's official site to try it out.

Last month, Funcom announced that Age of Conan would be switching to a free-to-play hybrid business model this summer. It looks like that day has quickly arrived, because Age of Conan Unchained is in the midst of launching! The servers are currently down to implement Update 2.6, and when they come back up the game will be free-to-play. Also, that is indeed a name change from the original Age of Conan Unrated title.

PC Gamer got to speak with Executive Producer Craig Morrison about the launch of Unchained. Here's what he had to say about the sudden launch: " We didn’t want to have too long of a delay between the announcement and the release, mainly so that people wouldn’t put off trying the game because they wanted to wait for the new offer."

For more details on Age of Conan going free-to-play and the Conan the Barbarian movie tie-in, be sure to check out our recent Q&A with Morrison. While you wait for the update to go live, watch the Age of Conan Unchained launch trailer below!

Last week, the team over at Age of Conan made the big announcement that this mature MMO would be taking some big strides by going free-to-play this summer. While Funcom has yet to announce any major plans for the future beyond their Conan the Barbarian movie tie-in, Age of Conan will go by a new title by the end of this shift to Age of Conan: Unrated.

With so many new changes on the way, I decided to catch up with Game Director and Executive Producer Craig Morrison to see if I could get some clarification on Age of Conan's movie tie-in plans, as well as the details on what's to come when Age of Conan goes free-to-play. Keep reading after the jump for his answers!

Following this week's announcements that Age of Conan will be going free-to-play and feature content from the upcoming "Conan the Barbarian" movie, it should come as no surprise that the latest development update letter is packed with all sorts of interesting information.

According to the letter, Age of Conan: Unrated will introduce quite a bit of content to the game in addition to making it free-to-play, such as two level 40-80 solo dungeons. The team is also working to merge servers using new "cross-server" technology, which will allow more players to play together. Basically, each rule-set in each region will ultimately get its own server. For example, If you're a PvE player in North America, you'll be on the same server as all of the other NA PvE players.

You can read the full letter after the jump.

Age of Conan is going free-to-play! Following in the footsteps of titles like Lord of the Rings Online, Champions Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea, Funcom will re-launch the game as Age of Conan: Unrated this summer under a hybrid business model. This means you'll be able to play the MMO for free or become a premium subscriber to gain access to extra content. And of course there will be an in-game shop where you can spend Funcom Points.

Your first question is probably, "what's the difference between free-to-play and premium?" Funcom's put out a content overview that showcases the differences, as well as a FAQ that will answer most of your questions. For example, free-to-play players will start off with two of 18 characters slots and have access to four of the 12 character classes. All outdoor playfields in Aquilonia, Cimmeria, and Stygia are available to all players. Some dungeons are free, while others require passes and expansion purchases. You can see the free-to-play vs. premium content chart after the jump.

Funcom is adding the word "Unrated" to the game's title because it's going for the full "barbaric, brutal and sexy" experience you'll find in the original works of Conan author Robert E. Howard. Age of Conan has always been for a mature crowd, but it looks like they truly plan to embrace the unrated route with the re-launch.

To put things in perspective, Age of Conan is celebrating its third-year anniversary this month. Also, this free-to-play switch will tie in perfectly with the release of the new "Conan the Barbarian" movie on Aug. 19. In fact, Funcom announced yesterday that a new in-game adventure pack will include content from the film.

"Conan the Barbarian" will be hitting theaters on Aug. 19, and Funcom plans to tie Age of Conan to the movie with the new Savage Coast of Turan adventure pack. The content update is set 20 years after the movie's storyline and will add "all new encounters, the massive new area of Ardashir, new dungeons and raids as well as new armor sets and monsters that moviegoers can already observe in the recently released theatrical movie trailer."

Speaking of the movie trailer, you can watch it below. This is certainly an interesting way for Funcom to draw attention to the game. Do you plan on seeing "Conan the Barbarian"? Will you be checking out the adventure pack?

Age of Conan turns three years old this month, and Funcom is celebrating by giving everyone free stuff! Here's a rundown of the events:

• Former players with an inactive account can log back in and play for free until the end of May.
• Active subscribers can claim three free potions that boost PvE experience, PvP experience and AA experience until the end of May.
• Players who recruit their friends to join the celebration will receive 50% additional game-time.
• Players can also enter the Age of Conan Anniversary Sweepstakes for a chance to win a copy of the game and the Rise of the Godslayer expansion.