What if Conan Exiles came from a place of cynicism rather than passion?

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What if Conan Exiles existed because Funcom was desperate and the survival genre looked like the easiest play for life-saving money? What if Conan Exiles came from a place of cynicism rather than passion?
The question stems from an Engadget interview with Funcom creative director Joel Bylos. It says a close-to-bankruptcy Funcom used SteamSpy to identify which kinds of games sold in a quantity the company needed to survive, and the answer was survival games - even moderately successful ones. Survival games also have a lower threshold of quality, owing to most of them being in Early Access development. "These games sell a lot," said Bylos, "but they're not that high quality. We could definitely hit that bar."
So in 13 months and for $4.5m, Conan Exiles was made. And the play worked, Funcom was saved, Conan Exiles recouping development costs in a week, before selling half-a-million copies in a month.
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