Today’s news have all but confirmed what many of us feared, AoE3DE life cycle is effectively over. The Polish-Dane DLC is canceled and we shouldn’t expect any further updates for the game. Servers will be kept online, with basic maintenance only.
The news are very sad, many of you are furious, rightfully so, feeling deceived or disappointed. Personally, I’m not angry, just sad. The writing was on the wall for many months and today’s announcement comes as no surprise.
If this is indeed the end, I would like to say some things:
I do thank the Devs for releasing a Definitive Edition for AoE3 at all, and for all the content that we did get. 2 new civs at release and 4 large DLCs is not nothing, plus all the smaller additions that we got in patch updates.
On the other hand, I’m left heartbroken at the thought of all the content that we won’t be getting, AoE3 covers a fascinating period of human history and there are many histories that could become amazing gameplay additions, but will sadly be left untold.
We will probably never truly know what went wrong behind the scenes and why AoE3DE suffered such an unfortunate and abrupt ending, but I seriously doubt that it comes from malice by the developer team. Running a game studio with several projects at the same is not easy, things get complicated, though decisions have to be made. We may not like the result, but cursing the devs or threatening to boycott their other projects or harassing the AoE2, AoE4 or AoMR communities will not bring AoE3 back.
Before the support is fully taken out, I would like to ask as a courtesy to the players, that all previous event profile pictures and Explorer skins are made available in perpetuity to all players, since there won’t be getting any new events were those can be unlocked again.
I would also like to ask that if they won’t be providing any more updates, that they at least facilitate for the community to keep the game alive with mods and community made updates. The game still has bugs and balancing issues, which shouldn’t have to be fixed by the players, but since this is the case now, at least allow those who still care about this game to help.
I’m sure it has been with malice in mind
They always hated III. They are just making fun of us
There are so many clues behind the curtains
And If you can not see it, then you are blind
That’s all!
Just do what you did for AOE 2 DE first 3 DLCs, put those with the base game so people who own the game but not the DLCs will get all previous content released for 3DE and new people who purchase AOE 3 DE base game will get all that content as well, might be then a price increase but would be very worth now we won’t see more content for 3 DE.
thanks for making like the one thread about this that isn’t full of insane ragebait or delusional behaviour lol
I work as a game developer in a different genre but we have the same situation which is normal now where there’s an expectation by players that all games are now live service games, even singleplayer ones. If there’s not constant new content the game is DEAD and the developers killed it!! I don’t mean to say being sad about a game’s update cycle ending isn’t valid, but all things end. I like to be positive.
If AoE3 DE had never been made I would still just be playing AoE3 TAD today. The DE is wonderful, the new civs are great, and the overall impovements to the game are beautiful. It’s pretty special to have an old game entirely remade so that new audiences can enjoy it like we got. I LOVE playing as Mexico, and the new AI leaders are voiced with such personality and fun. All the new treasures, maps, units, powers, and natives are so fun to play with! What a treat to have all that as an AoE3 fan. I think we certainly got our money’s worth.
It’s been said before too but I think AoE3 DE’s art is some of the best ever put into any RTS, ever. With the DE we got a 3D RTS that really stands up to and actually surpasses the masterpiece 2D RTS games in terms of presentation. Seeing the screenshots of giant cities and battles people have made in the scenario editor has been so wonderful! And I just love zooming in to the rivers and forests and watching the leaves fall and the waves lap at the shore. All the new unit models are so detailed and wonderful. I’m glad they added the photo mode to show all that off.
I think if these devs had bothered to talk to the community for the last year and a half, it would have hit differently. The DLC was an announcement after its own long period of radio silence. That’s partially why it generated so much hype in the first place. Then we got over a year of radio silence, and if you read that announcement, we never did get an explanation as to why this DLC was cancelled. We got a lot of corporate-speak boilerplate that is meant to placate us, but doesn’t actually communicate anything we actually care about. Again, no explanation about what happened, no explanation about their thought process, no announcement at all about future directions. We’re left to infer the game is dead, but they didn’t even bother to tell us that.
You’re a game dev. Take this as an example of how not to interact with your customer base. Everything about this is wrong.
I get what you’re saying about giving credit where it’s due, and I’d have been happy to do that if these devs had bothered to actually just give us some answers and more importantly, some closure. Just say the game’s done. They’re committed to AoM:R. They’re months behind on that game’s DLC promises as well, so they cut their losses with AoE3 and are going full-time into managing AoM:R. Had they said that, I’d have been fine with it. They could have done that a year and a half ago, frankly. Instead, they strung the community along for all this time and ended with broken promises and more radio silence. People aren’t in a mood after that kind of treatment to celebrate the good things and look back positively.
It isnt necessarily the end of the game that makes me worried for the whole franchise. Ofc it makes me sad. But Its the implications - ofc we dont know what went down behind the scenes and what the exact reasons are, but what should the fans of the other games think now? AoM has even less players then Age 3, Age 4 didnt receive a DLC and communication for that in over a year, the release of a p2w mobile game which was in every way possible disturbing for the fans. This all leaves behind a certain “taste” of restructuring business model, and in a way thats not beneficent for players.
Can we at least have a bugfix patch before you pull the plug?
For example, the Dutch Akan bug. Many people can fix it in five minutes for free. All you need to do is to click publish.
Dropping off at this stage with an insincere apology looks really ugly. A small symbolic patch would significantly improve your image. Not that you guys really care.
If they actually cared, they’d get one of the devs on the Discord or do a YT livestream and answer questions for 30 min or so, release a final balance/bug fix patch, and leave the game in a good place. Ideally, they’d port over some of the scenario editor enhancements they did with AoM:R and actually give the modding community a modernized toolset to do what these people couldn’t find the motivation to do: continue supporting the game.
We will get nothing of the sort though. They’re way behind schedule on AoM:R’s Chinese DLC. It’s Chinese New Year and all they did was a Twitter post naming one of the known gods to make a return. They have literally nothing to show, nothing to announce. They had scrambled the team to run AoM:R to market, then rushed back to work on the failed AoE3 DE DLC, and now they’re scrambling back to AoM:R, spamming the panic button the whole way. There’s no way they’re going to take the time to do a proper send off for AoE3. They’re going to hope the hate dies down, push out AoM:R’s stuff, hope the hype buys them back into their fans’ good graces and move on. It’s predictable, and frankly I resent them for doing it at this point. I’m beyond done accepting a manufactured corporate hype train as a substitute for actual customer engagement and respect.
There were people who cared about this game, like those who designed the civs, natives, techs and models. These were done with good understanding of the game’s setting and its charm.
Whether they perfectly fit in the gameplay or balance, since they don’t always, is up to those who are in charge of these aspects. But I tend to believe some historical fanatic went through pages and came up with those ideas out of interest and dedication, instead of intentions to harm the game. We’ve seen such passion in modders. They don’t always deliver commercial level quality content, but always with love.
Then the other people belittled their passion and failed to make good use of them.
These are the people who should come over and speak to us, not some insincere PR. But the fact is, they will never be acknowledged. When the company fails, they will be the first ones to be laid off. And those who are responsible for the horrible management will stay.
I’m not so sure they are getting away with it. They’re disappointing all of their customers. Fans are fickle, especially when there are a lot of other options. The Age series itself has 5 options, and those are just 5 among many other offerings in the genre. Players aren’t stuck here. They can and will leave, even the loyal ones, when pushed hard enough.
As I’m reading through the reactions on social media, people are upset about the DLC, but more importantly, they’re upset about how the company has operated, stringing them along, and using radio silence to cover up a lack of deliverable product. People have lost trust and that’s cancer to a game studio or publisher. Activision/Blizzard got hammered after their own issues (a s…cks harassment scandal). Ubisoft has implemented so many unpopular policies, it has driven it’s own reputation into the toilet. In fact, most of the AAA studios have gone so aggressively into cash grab mechanics and trying to substitute shiny graphics for quality game content, that there were major lay-offs all across the industry in the recent past. It’s a very competitive market and the customers are letting these studios have it when they mess up.
I have a feeling FE is busy learning that lesson right now. Would you buy the Chinese DLC for AoM:R if you hadn’t already pre-purchased it after watching what they did to AoE3? I’m not sure they have gotten away with it. It remains to be seen.
I won’t. Many people here won’t. But I’m not sure if we represent the majority.
The AOE community is very split. The AOE3 community is also very split. I’ve seen people celebrating or making use of this disaster to attack their “enemies”.
They can always cut their tail and limbs to escape until one day they have nothing else to cut. But I fear it’s not this time.
Blizzard and Ubisoft have been harshly criticized by the public for so many years, and it still took a decade before signs of collapse emerge. We have a long way to go.
Also warcraft 3 reforged did insane damage to blizzards reputation. When it happened i thought “ah Microsoft has learned that lesson and doesnt repeat its mistakes” but apparently they slept
Reputation takes a long time to build. People can be very loyal if they’ve invested thousands of hours playing games by these studios. That kind of loyalty doesn’t dissipate quickly. Think about a long-term relationship you were in. You were in love. You had many great times together. So when things start to go sour, you might look the other way. They’ve earned your trust so you give it, even when you shouldn’t. They start coming home late from work all the time. “He’s just a hard worker and it’s crunch time on a project.” They’re busy on weekends. “She’s entitled to have her friends.” They’re called away on business trips more often. “Great! It might even mean a promotion is coming if the deal goes through!” They stop spending time with the kids or your collective friend group. “Kids are frustrating sometimes. My father did that sometimes with me too.” You always trusted them with money, but now the credit cards have higher charges every month. “She made the money, she can spend it how she wishes. We’ll put that 10% away for retirement next month…” You might let it go on a long time before concluding the obvious. Betrayal sometimes creeps up like that, but once it’s done, it’s done for good.
