No more AOEO content

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Comadevil
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No more AOEO content

Post by Comadevil »

Today GPG announced in a blog post that no further content for AOEO will be released
It means that there will be no new content created for AOEO. There is a small amount of content still in the pipeline that will be released in the next few weeks, but that is all. No new features will be added. Most significantly, no new civilizations will be released; the six existing ones are the complete and final set.

However, nothing else changes for players, nothing that currently exists will be removed. You can still play everything you own, earn EP, and purchase any content you do not currently own. We will still fully maintain and support the game and its players; no one is losing anything that you have earned or bought. Our Community team will continue to support the game by way of Community Challenges, streams, contests, PvP tournaments and more.
Also i want to add that a AOE4 game is now most likely, M$ just hired a few people,one job description
This full time position is dedicated to creating a new game to
expand the Age of Empires portfolio, targeting modern highly accessible
platforms with broad appeal, rich social connectivity and intuitive
controls.
So don't listen to people, who are telling u the AOE franchise is dead. No company gives a million selling franchise that easily up
Last edited by Comadevil on Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sporting_Lisbon
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Sporting_Lisbon »

At last, we're moving on :)
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by AdriftCrescent8 »

It's too bad, I still think making the game completely free2play was a mistake from the beginning :S

The end of AOEO comes near.. No more bug fixes or improvements (like a multiplayer lobby, like an auction house and so much necessary things)!
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Sporting_Lisbon »

AdriftCrescent8 wrote: It's too bad, I still think making the game completely free2play was a mistake from the beginning :S

The end of AOEO comes near.. No more bug fixes or improvements (like a multiplayer lobby, like an auction house and so much necessary things)!
It is true. However we should be having a battery of tournaments soon, as Steve states: http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/fo ... 37774.aspx
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by generalbuschmann »

Finally  :D
It is true. However we should be having a battery of tournaments soon, as Steve states: http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/fo ... 37774.aspx
Who cares about tournaments with no money involved
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Comadevil
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Comadevil »

I think more the game design was a failure when it comes to keeping the players for months/years to the game, also the business model and marketing at beginning. Many AOE veterans didn't want to play AOEO, cause they just want to PvP

The steam sales of AOE3 go strong, player numbers of PvP games like DotA2, LoL or SC2 and full halls with nerds watching pro games just tell the story. They simply went into the wrong direction. For PvP u just need to provide a good gaming platform and a balance team who tweaks form time to time the balance. U don't have to employ artists, level designers etc after release to create expensive content. And u can still sell at leat 1 Mio copies of a AOE game. ANd 1 mio copies are really really many
Ofc there willb e a campaign, but they only have to make one for the game release

ANd the auction house would have been a real failure IMHO. Most prices would have gone even further down cause of too many drops, only just a few items would sell then for much money. Just look at DIablo. There it was simply the same
Last edited by Comadevil on Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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36drew
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by 36drew »

Aoe4 is likely the only thing that would stop theSc2 train for me.  Especially since I only have 1-2 hours per week to play these days.  Hope it comes true!
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by joe4holly »

aoe4 better not have the crap aoeo graphics. I wonder what the time frame will be
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Sporting_Lisbon »

joe4holly wrote: aoe4 better not have the crapty aoeo graphics.
I think they might have learned the lesson.
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by generalbuschmann »

Sporting_Lisbon wrote:
joe4holly wrote: aoe4 better not have the crapty aoeo graphics.
I think they might have learned the lesson.
it´s still microsoft, so a good chance they will **** up  ;D
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by AdriftCrescent8 »

The management really made a lot of mistakes: For example PVE & PVP were 2 different games running on one server. Every new civ, new content made the game worse. Last year it started freezing after playing for 4-5 hours. I warned the devs several times to take pressure of the servers, maybe even split the game up, but I don't think anyone ever looked at the suggestions forum. They "rebuilt" the game for the summer update, but made it much heavier & far worse. I will continue playing though. Maybe I'll go buy AOE3 too or get back on AOM. Empire Earth was pretty nice too, even Empires dawn of the modern world, but it isn't the same. We were dreaming of an AOE4 for how long? an AOE combining the first 3 AOE games with realistic graphics, a lot of civs and playable with 16 players. I certainly hope it'll come soon, but since nothing is announced yet, I won't start hoping. A legendary game like AOE should be announced from the start of its development. This will spread the word for the release already.
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P Gracias
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by P Gracias »

So, what now?I may go to sc2 after getting a new connection, but sc is soo expensive, or aoe3... how much does aoe3 cost on stream?
Who?What?Where?How?When?Why?
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Comadevil
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Comadevil »

Almost no studio announces a game when they begin to develop it.
I also don't think that the PvP section put much pressure on the server since the clients exchanged much infos between themselves (X player could not connect to Y player).

The whole business model for the game right form the beginning was questionable: Making more and more missions/campaigns which cost a lot of money producing, mix it with some MMO elements and hoping that people will buy that on and on. The idea behind that was only a small percentage of the players of the AOE franchise played PvP, many just bought the game, played the campaign and then were done with the game. So they told themselves: Let us see if we can get the 90% paying all the time.
U could see that at the prices for everything at release. 20 € per civ. wth? everybody asked.

Only that many of those 90% aren't interesting in paying all the time and playing missions. They want a campaign where they get immersed and which tells a story and not a whole bunch of missions playing one after another, even if they had some diversity. Playing the missions in AOEO was fun for me, but i never felt, that i get a story told. The SC2 campaign was much more immersive.
The F2P model was just a try to save the game from utter financial failure but that was mere an illusion cause u need more (expensive) content to keep the players. And the F2P model was quite appealing to some. It was one of the reason, why i began to play AOEO so intense. In the end i paid as much as for another game (around 30 €)

The rudimental or totally missing PvP features at the beginning(replay, observer modus, champion mode) just back up my opinion.
They simply forgot, though PvP players are only a small percentage of the people who bought the game, they keep the game in forums alive just by telling how good it is how much fun it is etc. That is also a reason why Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 were big commercial successes. But most AOE PvP veterans stayed away form AOEO cause of the above stated reasons.

And now that LoL, DotA2, and SC2 can fill halls with thousands just watching pro games there, and Blizzard making revenue even with that, they realize what big mistake they made with the AOE franchise from a business perspective. If i am not mistaken AOE2 has still more players than AOEO though there is no official multiplayer platform for AOE2 anymore.
ANd u just have to make a really good multiplayer plattform and make balance patches after release but u don't have to pay an expensive content team like in AOEO.


And 16 player is a bit overdone. Many computers will not handle it and the netwrk problems will be thousand fold. But to have a 4v4 mode for many clan fun games would be really cool
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by Comadevil »

P Gracias wrote: So, what now?I may go to sc2 after getting a new connection, but sc is soo expensive, or aoe3... how much does aoe3 cost on stream?
AOE3 complete (including two expansions) cost on steam if it is on sale 9,24 € in Europe else around 19 Euro . If SC2 is on sale via Battle.net it costs 19.99 € but on the other hand in two months the first expansion will get released

BUt  we can stiil play AOEO PvP till the next AOE game gets released
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Re: No more AOEO content

Post by jerom »

Well said coma, I totally agree.

Not only were the aoeo graphics disappointing to many players, the entire game design was pretty much terrible. The thing I personally hated most was the UI design, that's what has really kept me from playing much. The way you have to click on certain buildings to get yourself to do certain things, while you sometimes even have to travel to a different city for that, is plain inconvenient. Games like sc2 and dota2 have an amazing UI, and also spend lots of time on trying to make it as good as possible. Aoeo just had such a bad UI that I'm sure it kept many potential players from actually playing the game.

Great news overall. Do you have a source for that coma? So I can post it on agecomm ?
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