better one is COH2 having much more player activity vs its own sequel
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We have to take all factors into account. I don’t really have an opinion here on CoH 3 itself, Relic seem committed to CoH 3 regardless of its poor reception (more than they were with DoW III), as it’s been their “flagship” since CoH became the massive success it was (for Relic at the time, bearing in mind RTS is a relatively niche genre compared to 4x, ARPGs and FPS games).
- Age of Empires is a bigger franchise than CoH. It reaches a wider amount of players, simply for historical reasons. People locked into AoE were playing III before the original CoH was even released (2005 vs. 2006).
- AoE III: is a modern remaster and basically required to have a decent version of the game on a modern system. The appeal of the original AoE III (marked as AoE III (2007) on Steam) is far less (~330 online right now).
- That said, the original (Steam version of) CoH has just shy of 750 folks online right now.
- CoH 2 and AoE III: DE both have comparable active players at this second (~2.6k vs 2.4k respectively) despite CoH 2 being years older.
- It’s far cheaper than CoH 3 for the base game (excluding sales, as there’s one on right now), but if you grab up all the DLC it puts it in a more acceptable range (the “Complete History” bundle is ~£46 vs. CoH 3’s ~£50).
“a remaster of a 2005 game” is underselling it. The original point raised (in good faith, I’m sure~) by Tsuda was “dead game killed by professional studio Lelic”. I’m not sure why anybody wants to defend this argument, but sure, let’s run with it.
Based on my points above, yes, CoH 3 is not doing well. But AoE III: DE was released in 2020, holds a very strong approval rating on Steam, and also isn’t doing well. So when people are throwing around claims of “dead game”, we need to understand what is or isn’t dead by comparison.
Games at release often aren’t the games they end up being anymore. We can not like that as much as we want, but even AoE III: DE (built on top of an existing game, to boot) was in far different shape on launch back in 2020 than it is now in 2023. A “fair comparison” is pretty much impossible. There is no Age of Empires game released close enough to CoH 3. The gameplay of both franchises is vastly different. The price points vary massively given the fact that AoE games tend to have expansions, and CoH 3 is new enough to not have any.
tl;dr: there is no fair comparison that can be made, the best we can do is what data we’ve got. CoH has always struggled to match the numbers of any iteration of the Age franchise, because the Age franchise is bigger, older, and appeals to people differently.
Accusations of “killing games” are asinine; games live and die by their popular reception, and by the budget the publisher is willing to invest post-release. A bad game doesn’t have to remain bad, a good game likewise doesn’t have to remain good. This is the reality of games nowadays, and people throwing about “dead game” on something that’s been out a matter of weeks are honestly probably just not worth engaging with.
Age IV, for example (to drag this back on-topic yet again), has seen a ton of change in the year and a half since it was released. We’ve even seen new units (and I hope this trend continues, independently of new civs). And I sat through more than enough “the game is going to die and nobody is going to play it, just like DoW III” posts to say “maybe for once we should wait and see” at this point 
but its compared to aoe 3 which is the less famous and most rejected in all succesful aoes. You re ignoring the debuff that aoe 3 got since its first release. coh got more than 30k on release so they are basically “equal”.
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They affirmed that it is a dead game, I proceed to ask, according to you, what number of online players is considered a dead game?
and then what… conclusion: they made a fool of themselves, bye bye
guess what… coh3 is losing like water tons of player more faster according to steamcharts. from 30k to 3k. wow 99% of the playerbase already left.
bye bye
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curiously the word tons reminds me of the time of the pandemic
is that we are going to play it on the ps5
I know they’re going to censor it, obviously treat yourself
[mod hat on] Friendly reminder to attack the argument and not the person making it. Be excellent to each other, and leave this forum better than you found it.
I know it can get hot in the kitchen, and the heavy users of a forum tend to rub against each other frequently. We have more in common than not, so please resist the urge to eat each other.
Cheers, and now feel free to jump back into the ring and fight. Just aim for the meat of the arguments and don’t hit below the belt.
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Dude really thinks showing 38k players going down to 18k can hurt the “fans” of the other game as much as 30k to 3k…I’m moved to tears.
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wow being coh 3 the only rts avaiable after hype on other rts already died and you keep ignoring the aoe 3 debuff. coh 3 launched with no competitors and it still failing. aoe 3 launched on 2020 but still getting 18k on launch meanwhile aoe 2 gets 38k. see the “equality”,
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Some of you are acting like you despise every other AoE game that isn’t your chosen one when it is clear you haven’t even played them. The zealotry is ridiculous, and quite frankly, reminds me of another playerbase.
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Dude really thinks showing posts got hidden is an insult.
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I think everyone who post in this forums have some sort of opinion.
Some people like the game, some don’t, some just want to improve.
From everything I read I have no idea what hasan stand for, he is all of the types above.
I think he really doesnt have other work to do so he just stay here posting random statistics here and there, but oh well, if that makes you feel who I am to judge .
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honestly objective opinion, but my previous question remains unanswered
It seems like the community is more fragmented than ever.
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Yes and no, mostly there are a few certain users who like to start stuff and act immature or jump into anything someone said they mildly disagree with to correct them.
this move is called following schedule put in place before any sale or concurrent player numbers came in, aka doesn’t have any relevance in this talk point
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Lol, before coh3 launch, coh2 almost had the same numbers as age IV, talking about niche… Age is not that great, it was great in 1998-99, there were superior RTS and more popular over years, SC, War3, DOW1, age was resurrected with the HD endition and finally with excellent DE edition, the only niche are the eSports players thinking they are the majority of player base.
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A lot of bla bla, numbers are facts, period.
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People say that RTS is niche, Age 2 DE is proof that is invalid, a well made game will have success no matter the genre. I just can’t believe some people here blame the community for age IV, COH3 or DOW 3 failure. Those are products and customers judge with their wallets.
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Nobody is saying AoE Ii: DE isn’t successful 