Chinese and Japanese Pantheons released with only 3 major gods, meaning we have massive backlog of 4th major gods we are missing.
Major + Minor gods are some of the easiest god packs to add in the game since human units, heroes, buildings and such are already in the game. Throw in couple techs, gps and myth unlts.
And honestly it is disappointing having to wait until 2027 for 4th Egypt, Atlantean, Japanese, Chinese and Aztec major gods. Microsoft might pull the plug any moment and lot of resources are wasted on this nonreplayble content like AotG and Gauntlet.
My opinion is that devs should focus more on 4th major gods and 3 minor gods assosiated. 1 of them is magnitudes less work required to build new pantheon.
AoM Retold is the best and I am excited for future support but without 4th major gods it feels like movie director choosing to not film the last 5%.
In fact, the very top of the post said everything for all titles was the plan for the first half of 2026, there’s certainly more to come in the second half. Direct quote from the article:
“While we plan to take an end of year rest, we’re already geared up for 2026. Here’s a preview of what you can expect in the first half of next year from the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology franchises.”
But this is also correct, if sales aren’t good it may very well be the last addition. Hopefully that won’t be the case though.
I know some people have some strange obsession with symmetry that they feel uncomfortable when they see a list of pantheons with different numbers of major gods but should they dedicate lots of time and effort just to make a civ list look good or “fair”?
New pantheons are certainly the more interesting content since they have a lot more to offer then a new major god. New major gods could offer more differences to the current ones but I feel like that would upset people too if one god was more interesting then the other 3.
Also how know what they have planned for the future, maybe even they are waiting to see sales numbers and community feedback. Maybe they only want a 4th major god for the original 3-4 civilisations.
Honestly I would personally rather see a 5th major god for the Norse or Greeks then a 4th for any of the new pantheons, though Egyptians should definitely get a 4th next. I still hope for something more interesting like Poseidon as a 4th major god for Atlanteans, where you choose between one Greek and one Atleantean god on each age up and you can train some Greek units. Also why not have some current minor gods be major gods too. Why can’t they be both? Definitely makes more sense then having the USA and Mexico as a full civ and a revolution in AoE3DE.
Maybe I’m bias because I want to have Skadi as a major god.
It isnt about symmetry. It is about Freyr basically bringing promise existing pantheons will get additions. It has been over a year and lot of us were/are excited for them but we got AotG instead.
In eyes of developers/mapmakers/modders adding new major god really isnt lot of work compared to new pantheons. It is basically same as looking at adult too lazy to brush their teeth.
Devs pulled Atlanteans out of nowhere, I am sure they can come up with smarter option than 5th Norse god.
They literally promises the 2 new Pantheons and AotG as in that was written on the Store page, while new God Packs were just implied. They delivered on all of the things they officially promised and now the first new thing we are getting is a God Pack.
They will probably see how well Demeter sells to see how interested people will be in future ones. If it sells well they will likely make a lot more, since as you said, they are easier to make then entire new Panthoens.
Now that it’s confirmed that the Aztecs are planned for Q2 of 2026 there is potential for more DLC in Q3 and Q4, they could both be God Packs instead of new Pantheon.
Do you know how the internal structure is at Microsoft, Worlds Edge and Forgotten Empires? We have no idea who is making what decisions there. There is likely no one at Microsoft that does come to Words Edge and tells them what DLC to do next. It’s probably Forgotten Empires that pitches a DLC idea and the management agrees or disagrees with it.
So either Forgotten Empires went to the management and said “we don’t have enough capacity can we please delay/cancel the AoE3DE DLC” or it was the management saying “you need to cancel the AoE3DE DLC so you can finish the AoMR DLC on time”. We have no idea, or do you have an insights?
It is always in the decision making of the project manager most of the time. The devs just do the coding and follow orders. We do know that someone higher up did cancel the AoE 3 DE dlc. No need for conspiracy theory about this. Also the aforementioned failure behind the AoMR deployment is false, one of the best launch for an Age game belongs to AoM Retold.
In small teams the like Forgotten Empires the project manager is likely doing some game development themselves too. Not just sitting there managing all day.
We have no idea how the decisions are made internally. Like was there a meeting where they discussed multiple options like delaying again vs. cancelling, and if yes who was in that meeting. You think a project manager does suddenly hate AoE3DE after working on it for years? I’m not saying you are spreading conspiracy theories about it, I just say that we can’t tell from the outside who within the company was in favour or against the cancellation of the DLC.
Yes the AoMR release went pretty well but they had to delay the Chinese DLC, which was originally promised for 2024 as well as the Arena of Gods which was originally be planned to be part of the game on release. So they did definitely not have enough capacity to make an AoE3DE DLC in 2024, so they originally delayed it.
AoE III was always hated. Why not continue working on a larger player base project when you have a new one that requires more investment with a lower player base in comparison?
As you can see AoM R had only a peak when releasing SP Content like Campaigns and So.
AoE3DE is free to play, the player number was significantly lower before it got free to play
AoMR costs +50% base price with a premium edition that likely most people bought wich cost +150% compared to AoE3DE
It was released on Xbox from the beginning
We don’t have any internal numbers so we don’t know who much money they actually did.
But ignoring all that. Wouldn’t that mean they should just be making AoE2DE content because that has a much higher player base? Since none of the games have a monthly cost, season pass or anything like that they make 0 money off of people that simply just play the game. They make the same money from someone who just buys the game, finishes the campaign and then moves on compared to someone who keeps playing multiplayer for years.
If they hated the community why did they not just make the Definitive Edition but also multiple DLC with lots of content.
AoE1DE never got a DLC and even AoE2ROR never got anything either. AoEO never for a Definitive Edition in the first place.
But I know I won’t ever convince you. You hate Worlds Edge because you think they killed AoE3DE and I won’t be able to change that.
Thats not true. Simply just look at the numbers.
AoM is a SP Content first game it makes no sense to keep investing on MP content at this point. The game is not competitive and never will be
Yeah they killed my favorite AoE title and I never ever forgive them for do that.
But Is not about they simply killed it, is how they killed and how they managed it. They make a lot of obnoxious decisions with it since they released the OG 2005 version.
ok how do they make a single cent from someone who keeps playing the game compared to someone who just buys the same DLC and stops playing?
They also killed my favourite title, because it’s the same one.
I am sad about it, but I don’t know why they killed it so I don’t blame random people for it. Blaming anyone is not going to fix anything. But that’s something most people will probably never understand.
What do you expect to happen? Them saying “Thanks for insulting us for years, because of that we decided to start supporting AoE3DE again!” or what? Venting your frustration won’t bring AoE3 back.
Another lie. If that was true you will be with US, with the III community that loves the game not justifying a company’s actions cause is “the way that is meant to be”
If that was true you will be with our grief, with our anger, with our disappointment, with our frustration and sadness.
