It seems that a lot of people are interested in swinging bloody swords. At least a million people, in fact.

That’s according to Funcom, the Norwegian game developer and publisher preparing to release “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures,” the fantasy-themed, gore-spattered MMORPG set to debut for PC gamers next Tuesday (A version of AoC for Xbox 360 is expected next year.)

The company had opened an Early Access program for fans who paid about $10 extra to pre-order the game and stroll around the fantasyland Hyboria three days before the release date, but now says too many people applied and so had to shut the program down.

“We know that several people will be unhappy to not receive their early access time, but please bear with us in the remaining days,” implores Oliver Kunz, a senior community manager for the Age of Conan forum community.

“Several people” might be putting it mildly. “Age of Conan” is regarded the biggest MMORPG to come out since “World of Warcraft” and could cut into WoW’s prodigious fan base. The game already has won broad praise from reviewers and has been rated among the most anticipated titles of the year.

And so, naturally, registrants to the Early Access program who now cannot get access are a little miffed — especially since no mention of a membership limit was posted in advance.

“Was it ever announced there was limited early access keys to begin with?” asks forum writer Terebro. “Unless I am mistaken, the deadline was never announced to exist until now … and because of that I have missed out. Unimpressed, Funcom.”

The sudden shutdown now raises speculation that “Age of Conan” has other problems, too. A limited beta release of the game from last year ran into heavy criticism for having too many glitches at that point in its development.

“No MMO launch in the history of the genre has been without its share of glitches, but when combined with the aforementioned beta issues, this latest snafu is certainly not the best way to launch a title seen by many as a potential ‘WoW killer,’” wrote Earnest Cavalli at Wired Blog Network.