As many of you know, Age of Empires II’s new “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” DLC has stirred a lot of discussion—some of it quite heated. This comes on the heels of a major shift in leadership: in February 2022, Shannon Loftis, the former head of World’s Edge, officially retired.
Shannon had been involved in the revival of the Age of Empires franchise long before World’s Edge became an official Xbox Game Studio. Her leadership was visionary, and her passion undeniable.
Under Shannon, AOE3 was receiving updates and expansions at a pace and quality that delighted the entire community. The developers clearly loved the game beyond just “doing their job.”
Her successor, Michael Mann, was previously the executive producer of AOE4. Regardless of your personal opinion of that title, it’s hard to deny that the studio has struggled since the transition.
Let’s take a look at what happened in 2022, the last golden year:
AOE3 got its last content DLC.
AOE4 received one well-received expansion—subsequent ones didn’t land as well.
AOE2 had no major controversy or “bad” DLCs, but out of 5 content and 2 cosmetic DLCs since 2022, only The Mountain Royals got overwhelmingly positive feedback.
AOE1 even received an update.
Since then? Things have gone downhill.
With the messy reception of AOE2’s latest DLC (just take a peek at the forums or the official Twitter replies), and Age of Empires 4’s variant civilizations are starting to make players feel that they are losing sincerity, especially since Age of Empires 3 was declared deadmany feel that World’s Edge is mismanaging this IP.
Perhaps—just perhaps—this rising wave of community frustration will be noticed by higher-ups. Maybe it’ll show up in the quarterly reports. If leadership changes come, then AOE3 might just have a chance at rebirth.
I want to make it clear that I don’t think it’s our “duty” as players to do something, but if one day AOE3 is revived, the core force behind the change may not necessarily come from us, however, we would certainly be one of the factors that help bring about that change.
The more we are seen, the more it will highlight how inept and despised the current leadership of World’s Edge is. Our visibility only underscores their failure.
So I urge everyone: shine your light where you can. Keep speaking up.
I’ve seen your comments on Twitter. They moved me deeply. Though my account was blocked by the official handle, I’ve still “liked” every AOE3 message I’ve found—you may have seen me.
If the next leaders realize that:
AOE3 has stable player numbers despite no active support,
Our community is active and passionate,
The game continues to place in the top 5 RTS games on Steam, far outperforming Age of Mythology,
Then there is still hope.
Am I too optimistic? Maybe.
Do I have solid ground for this belief? I think I do. The AOE2 and AOE3 communities are clearly frustrated, vocal, and alive.
At the very least, we must be ready. At the very least, we can still do something.
This game is worth it. Ourselves are worth it too.