Due to the game being in rumored development since 2003, an online virtual community had steadily clustered around various fan websites regarding Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. By February 2005, this informal community was still going strong despite no true public announcement concerning the rumored game. Finally, Funcom and Conan Properties LLC jointly confirmed the in-development status of Age of Conan in an official press release on April 20, 2005. Shortly thereafter, a primitive game website debuted and thousands of Conan enthusiasts migrated from their fan sites to the new official forums hosted by Funcom. Many Anarchy Online fans also followed the development of the product due to the involvement of Funcom, who created the Anarchy Online PC series.
Between March 2005 and January 2006, Funcom periodically revealed concept art and screenshots from Age of Conan. The Art Director for the Conan project is Didrik Tollefsen, known for such classics as The Longest Journey and Anarchy Online - Shadowlands, which won the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction award at RPG Vault in 2003.
On January 24, 2006, Funcom unveiled the community portal for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. By this time, much of the pre-launch community had gathered around the forums and IRC chat of the official Age of Conan website. There were informal events such as IRC chats with the developers and, in summer 2006, community contests.
In April 2006, Funcom created a Guild Hall for its pre-launch community and, within hours, forum members began organizing their "player guilds." These guilds consist of individuals who typically share the same playing styles and gameplay opinions. In January 2007, several important updates were announced regarding class merges and the expected launch window for the game. On January 12th, Funcom announced the original twenty-three classes had been merged down to fourteen classes due to beta feedback.
On April 3, 2007, Funcom began its Beta Sign-Up program which attracted more than 100,000 gamers over the Easter holiday. Shortly thereafter, the "technical beta" phase began on April 27, 2007, and several hundred individuals from the Age of Conan online community began formal testing.
On January 14, 2008, despite earlier comments to the contrary, Pharamond posted on the official forums that there will be an Open Beta, with more details to be announced closer to release date.
On February 7, 2008, Funcom and Eidos announced that over 500,000 people had signed up for the Beta Testing of Age of Conan.
On May 19, 2008, GameZone.com presents a series of original fictional stories by Michael Lafferty stemming from the massively multiplayer online world of Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures. The stories are written with the permission and cooperation of Funcom. The tales deal with the world, the characters and the lore involved in Hyboria.