Funcom will begin closing servers for its MMORPG Age of Conan, merging over half of the 49 servers with the 18 that will remain active.  In the U.S., for example, a few servers will absorb the populations of 6-7 currently online.

The server mergers began last week, with the rest of them to happen this week, according to Funcom.

Although the move is a clear sign that the game is not performing as well as its publishers had hoped, it does mean that the game experience will improve for those who do play.  A healthy population makes the game more enjoyable, as MMOs certainly need that “massively multiplayer” component to them in order to thrive.

Signs that Age of Conan had gone off course began in September, when the game’s producer and designer Gaute Godager made a quick departure from Funcom, a company he had been with for 16 years.  And apparently, an episode of the CBS show The Big Bang Theory prominently featuring the game was not enough to drive huge adoption of the title.

Funcom has promised that it will keep working on adding end-game content to Age of Conan, and is currently developing the first expansion for the game.  Funcom is also hard at work on The Secret World, its next MMO.

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