After 4 months or so without an update, and no big tourney, it got rather clear that the devs don’t quite care about AoE2 all that much anymore.
That being said, the DLC being added to the steam database a lot earlier than any actual news for it, was a nice way to throw us a bone to not die of starvation completely.
Sloppy job honestly, and I don’t think the devs can deny it either. After AoE4 got released everyone here got worried that MS will stop caring about AoE2 and focus only on AoE4. And what did they do, they said “exciting stuff is coming” and then radio silence, proving all of those fears completely justified and correct.
And not even 6 months after release, AoE2 has double the average players, I won’t even bother comparing watch time on YT and Twitch.
Sure, we will get the DLC. I can put a guesstimate that it will be late May that the DLC will arrive. But even with my skepticism and pessimistic outlook I truly did not anticipate that the DLC will come so long after any meaningful update to the game.
Even AoE3, absolute props to the devs, wow like, how many dlcs has the game had? 3? 4? In half the time AoE2 has been out, and more regular updates, and bigger too.
I know that modding AoE3 is easier than AoE2, but still, come on guys.
Oh, and to add, though it will be hard to articulate my feelings without using bold words that should be avoided on a public forum:
We, the long time fans, will keep playing AoE2 and AoE3. I have been doing it from the day I can hold a mouse and I will keep doing it until the day I can’t hold a mouse anymore. The DLCs are nice, keep them coming, no negativity here. And I’m well aware that it’s not the FE devs’ fault for what’s happening. It’s MS’s marketing team that has to be held responsible. And to you, I am telling you- you had a really good chance and making a good AoE game. You blew that. Then you had a really good chance at having a competitive AoE2 and a casual oriented AoE4. You blew that too. But we don’t care. We will keep playing AoE2 and 3, and we will give you another chance with AoE5. Don’t blow that one too, please.