Funcom has announced their first new Conan the Barbarian game titled Conan Exiles

Conan Exiles is one of the three Conan the Barbarian games Funcom plans to announce in 2016 as they have recently made a partnership with the aptly named Conan Properties (which just makes me think of Conan in a business suit) to breathe a breath of fresh air in to a franchise that hasn't seen a good new entry for a while now.

Conan Exiles is an open-world survival game set in the brutal wilderness of Conan's homeworld Hyboria. It is slated to arrive on Steam Early Access in the summer of 2016 with a full PC & console launch to follow suit shortly afterwards. Here's the trailer:

 

In Conan Exiles you will be able to either play solo and attempt to survive against the various barbaric tribes that inhabit the land or join multiplayer servers where you will need to ensure your survival while being constantly vigilant for player-run tribes that would love nothing more than to sacrifice you at an altar to dark gods.

While a lot of this sounds like the standard open-world survival fare one thing does stick out: the ability to band with other players and create permanent settlements and fortresses that you will need to actively defend against other players. If made well and actually finished, unlike the majority of the survival games out there, I can easily see this feature alone being a big draw for Conan Exiles.

But as it stands we know very little about the actual gameplay so I'd suggest you remain cautiously optimistic for now, at least until some real gameplay footage rolls in.