Funcom had a massive best selling hit in late May with the release of the long awaited fantasy MMO Age of Conan. However, the "fun" has gone out of Funcom a bit over the summer with Blizzard execs reporting they have gotten back a sizable fraction of their World of Warcraft subscribers that went over to Age of Conan.

Now it looks like the developer is doing some cutting of their personnel numbers in their US offices. According to a rumor story at TenTonHammer, Funcom laid off 70 percent of their US positions late last week, mostly in their customers service and QA departments. The report was unclear as to the specific numbers of layoffs. Funcom has issued an official response but even that was fairly unclear: "We did have some staffing cuts at Funcom this week as well as new positions opening in the organization as part of our ongoing cost based efficiency and performance initiatives that are vital to any business."