I totally agree with you.
In my case, I play 2DE and 3DE side by side. Then I don’t feel the need to play 4.
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Did you read the patch notes?
It’s like 5 bug fixes, that’s it.
The AoE3DE patch will be a lot bigger (looking at the PUP).
Maybe it’ll be even bigger than we think. A lot of rumours about them announcing the next DLC soon.
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We hope to see the Explorer Skin Pack vol.2 DLC, and we believe that Microsoft values the trust Age of Empire 3 players
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I directly don’t play AoE anymore until October… AoE 2 DE and 3 DE only play in the events; AoM I just wait for Retold, AoE 4 is dead… the only one that I accept that I could continue playing would be AoEO. ..later I prefer to play other RTS (Sudden Strike 4,R.U.S.E.,CNC saga,CoH saga,Starcraft saga,etc)…
That shows that Forgotten Empires shows Relic how to give love to the saga…
In addition to bringing AoE 3 mechanics to the game… since AoE 2 players don’t switch to AoE 4, they prefer to attract AoE 3 players, but at the same time make AoE 4 seem like a better game than AoE 3…
And don’t be surprised that this happens… AoM with the graphics of AoE 3 DE could be the final blow for AoE 4 and they are not going to want that to happen, putting punches in both 3 DE and Retold…
Yes, one asked what game it was or if it was AoE 4 xd…
They feel an inferiority complex… like when a girl/boy you like likes a boy/girl prettier than you, you feel jealous and try to boycott the respective person so that your target notices you…
World’s Edge Studio, LLC is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Redmond, Washington. They were established in 2019 to oversee the Age of Empires franchise. The studio works with external studios such as Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media and Relic Entertainment to bring back the franchise.
At E3 2019 Xbox announced that they are establishing a new internal studio which later named World’s Edge. The studio was established in 2019 by Adam Isgreen and Shannon Loftis to work on the Age of Empires franchise.[2][3]
The studio’s first title was Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for which they partnered with Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media and Wicked Witch Software. They worked as an overseer to make sure the title was in the right direction.
Shannon Loftis, one of the founders and head of the studio retired in 2022 and Michael Mann the executive producer of Age of Empires IV took her place.[4] (that explains a lot)…
On the 25th anniversary of Age of Empires in October of 2022, World’s Edge announced Xbox console ports of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV. Also announced was a remaster of Age of Mythology and the global version of Age of Empires Mobile.
We understand and are grateful for the response; don’t worry, we just needed that; we were worried about radio silence…
And Forgotten Empires obviously, since they make the dlcs for the games…
Don’t be surprised if one day they put it in…
Hopefully we hope so…at least they announce a dlc either from the Baltic (Poland and Denmark) or from North Africa (Morocco and Barbary States) for August…
Yes, too…the skins are very good…
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I don’t think the number of bugfixes makes any difference. It’s not that people’s reading time of the patch note really matters.
And this update also offers a new event, which overlaps with the AOE4’s. So the “avoid overlap” excuse does not hold. Now there is no single reason why something finished a month ago needs to be delayed for so long.
If the AOE3 patch is so big and important, it would not take so long to even decide when to release it (it still hasn’t been decided ironically, only the patch note) —— it should be prioritized. Whatever excuse, this is still very discriminative.
BTW not many active updates on steam after the PUP ends. That does not translate to a lot more new works. And I’ve never seen something delayed actually gets enriched or polished during the wait. There were delayed games due to poor performance in alpha testing which got released as bad as it was months ago. Let alone new contents. Also if they decide to release a much bigger patch untested, that usually caused much more problems. I’d rather not.
In any case, this long delay and abysmal communication irritates me.
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I’m not justifying the delay I’m just saying that the comparison to the AoE2 patch doesn’t really make sense.
It would be crazy if they would delay bug fixes because of other games.
The new event is also very minor and I don’t think many people care. There are events like running more often then not.
Because it’s weird and unprecedented.
All other games are still updated routinely, unaffected. Never has any patch avoided other patches or got delayed for no reason either. Just this one patch. And we still are not given any solid excuse.
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Would you also think it would be crazy if I told you the following:
- AoE3DE is hardly ever promoted and the only time you’ll see it on any SM is when a patch is released.
- AoE1- a game from 1997 was invited to the Redbull tournament while 3DE was mysteriously absent.
- Anniversary Event- A celebration of 25 years of everything AoE. Where was AoE3?
- Whenever some highly NEW innovative mechanic is implemented in AoEIV the only game that gets credit as to where it comes from is AoE2.
I could go on.
Clearly, the folks at WE have some issues with AoE3DE and downplay/ignore it as much as possible. This July Patch debacle is just another feather in their cap. And then, whenever 3DE players start to get loud they’re quickly thrown a bone to go back to being docile. Support from FE/Tantalus notwithstanding, World’s Edge seems uninterested in exposing this game to more people.
The point is, there is a pattern here.
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Somehow I’m confused by Microsoft’s approach to AoE3. On the one hand, it seems like they want to stick to the game, but on the other hand, it still feels like it continues to be the unwanted part of the series. Since the allocation of Forgotten Empires resources to the other titles, especially AoE4, there have been no significant content updates at all. The systematic exclusion of AoE3 from the Red Bull Wololo Legacy shows a clear signal that the game doesn’t seem to matter at all. All this is really confusing to me.
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So to be clear, the devs have not officially said “this is because patches aren’t supposed to overlap”, it’s just a fan theory? Or did they say that?
Because a lot of people seem to be running with it like it’s fact.
I understand why the community feels like III might not be being promoted as much, but there seem to be a lot of random conspiracy theories being invented with nothing more than circumstantial evidence.
I hope y’all get your answers regardless. Communication is something I think fans of all AoE games want more of (maybe apart from II: DE? I don’t see many complaints there).
It was stated on a Twitch stream by a certain FE Dev.
Since then, we’ve gotten a couple of other reasons such as blaming Valve.
So, we don’t know what to believe.
BUT- There is indeed a rather substantial list (named a few couple posts above yours) WE haven’t exactly fostered much trust within the AoE3 community.
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Devs said in the comments of a stream “essentially the patch is trapped in a queue of updates for other age titles”
And then we got “My understanding after asking about it some more is that the long turnaround time is a result of something on Valve’s end. The drawback is that after that got fixed, patches and hotfixes for other titles were already scheduled and approved for launch and so this update had to be re-scheduled after those things… Which had already been scheduled after this one’s initial release date. Kind of like being at the DMV when you forget something.”
You cannot blame people for turning to conspiracy theories if (1) there is zero communication (2) there are SO MANY instances that coincide with each other on the surface.
For example, total negligence of the game on social media and almost any event.
If this is just one patch delay then we won’t relate it to discriminative behavior.
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That’s the best part.
They hate to give any credit to it even when at the same time they are paying people to do a lot of work on it.
It smells like those stupid office politics where one part of the management hate some others (and/or their work) and try to downplay the latter regardless of the cost.
But I still cannot believe such a big business would really be affected by this. All I know is if it is already this messed up on the surface, it must be 10x worse underneath.
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I personally care more about what they actually do with the game then what silly events they make.
I don’t think they reach a large audience and are honestly not good.
AoE4 clearly targets AoE2 players and not AoE3 players. Promoting AoE3 features in AoE4 (like the fact that the Ottomans essentially have a home city) would scare away the AoE2 players because they have an irrational fear of everything AoE3.
Every single feature that is different in AoE3 compared to AoE2 is listed by some person as the main reason why AoE3 is/was less popular then AoE2.
Ironically AoE3 got a patch improving the Ottomans right before they were released for AoE4 making them even better in AoE3 compared to AoE4 then they already were before.
Just makes AoE4 look even worse.
Considering how good AoE3 is an how much new content free updates add to the game, it makes AoE2/4 look really bad.
How many new unit skins are we getting in the next patch?
That’s probably more units then were added to AoE2 since the release of AoE2DE (if you don’t count RoR).
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So something went wrong with Steam (I’ve heard lots of stories over the years with how the backend process with Steam depots and the like can go wrong), and they had to re-schedule the entire update because of whatever issue needed fixing (whether it was on Valve’s side or Tantalus’ / FE’s)?
I mean, plausible. Doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with IV (or II: DE, or whichever product). I agree that more communication would be infinitely better than leaving consumers in the dark.
Oh yes off course let’s not upset those poor AOE2 elitists, let’s hold their hands as tight as possible so they won’t run away. 
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As a mainly AoE 2 player, I usually like to remind other AoE 2 players that AoE 3’s changes don’t make it “better” or “worse” because those are subjective terms, it just makes the game different and unique. I do the same vice versa with AoE 3 players that sometimes say that they don’t like AoE 2 because civs are “the same” and the game is “slow and boring”. 
Just play all games and have fun with all of them. Each Age game provides a unique experience.
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I can accept this up until “something went wrong on steam”.
BUT there is no way that after it got fixed, the patch needs to be “re-scheduled” (meaning put to the far end of the queue) because other games have planned updates. There are a lot of instances where patches of different games overlap. One just happening yesterday.
Just a reminder, we still haven’t got a finalized release time of the patch, but just the patch note.
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Yeah, I have no idea how it works. My guess it that fixing something in the build causes a redo of whatever verification and upload Valve requires through Steam, vs. the other updates that were locked and ready to go with no changes. Just a guess though.
Like “units now throw torches at buildings like in AOE3” would immediately scare them away with the last three words.
Voldemort of the series.
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