Due to the current problems with Xbox Live, I am unable to sign-in. I thought that this would only impact multiplayer but in fact I cannot even play in single-player mode. My request is to at least be able to play single-player in an offline mode capacity when servers are down, etc…
Thoughts? I just want to be able to play the game 
should be able to play offline of course but they blocked it. sad
I could not agree more.
Got some problem here too.
Yeah wtf…I’m in a location 90% of the time where I cant get to a wifi spot and so this game is worthless
That’s really sad. I hope they will implement the “offline” use again.
I have same problem with DE no access to Xbox servers, no offline option and I had only just overcome the ‘failure to launch’ problem via a workaround [bug fix for that due end of March]. A pitifully poor state of affairs, wake-up Microsoft. All my gaming is ordinarily done on Steam where problems rarely arise and get fixed swiftly.
I couldn’t agree more! I bought the game, and then two days later my internet at home has a service disruption, and now I can’t play.
that is like DRM and it makes no sense these days… I have a very bad connection 'cos I live in a mountainous region, also very rainy and my 6MB ADSL connection drops a lot. If I can’t play the single player mode of one of my favourite games ever…I’d be very pissed, when it makes no sense to be online or there isn’t a need to.
AoE1 campaigns are some of the best ever in the genre. Some scenarios are just incredible
+1
This “feature” is of course stupid, it’s not like people can’t download pirate version of AoE DE so as usual it only harms those who payed for the game.
There is a workaround however.
Use hybernate. If you login to the game while you do have Internet, you can just leave it at the main menu instead of closing it completely. Leave it minimized, and if you have to shut down the computer just hybernate. After that, even if your Internet disappears, you will still be able to play singleplayer.
Are you freaking kidding me? Wtf am I supposed to do now?
it’s a shame, they should implement it asap
I am of course aware that this is on an official AoE DE site but is this the best place to get a message to the devs? The joy I experienced when this game was announced was only heightened when I played it but I have now been brought crashing back down to earth as i booted up the laptop this morning only to realise you cannot play this game offline. WHY? Please tell this will be fixed in a future update
So ref my previous comment, I have now had a chance to try something mentioned by JosephC64 and that works, log on connected and start your game then pause, close your laptop and take it wherever you intend to play offline and it works fine, you can progress through the single player campaign as norms. However the “chat” doesn’t appear to work so no cheats, if you use them.
just confirmed that my game can single player offline
I think two windows store settings are involved,
one is offline permission ,turn it on
the other one is managing offline device, it allows you set max 10 devices, but may be only one is accepted by aoe:de , I formerly had 2 devices , only after I deleted my surface 3 from that list, my game on laptop can offline .