How will MS deal with dwindling population?
Should AoE4 be a multi RTS games platform like SC2 ?
It’s not a secret, each new RTS did die.
So what’s the plan ? Give money for a game that is dead 3 month later is an experience with results.
The population is already small due to
-they always put unfinished games and cut content for DLCs
-this means a lot of people wait up reviews
and some ways to find out how the game is performing
-the later people buy the game, the smaller the population.
I just don’t see why and how AoE4 should break the cycle,
sure lots of money will be put into advertisement,
but dead servers is dead servers.
So is the plan “again”?, as usual : drag the game to release, hit fix patches, let it die and expect people to forget by new next game what happened. Exactly that’s the reason why people in general do avoid games today.
I just don’t see, why people should be interested into a game,
that has zero plans what it should to post launch.
So in my opinion the team behind AoE4, should take the bad reputation serious.
Starcraft2 kind of had the idea of trilogy and to let people play against each other no matter what version they did buy. Also later on “I am 100% sure” Blizzard did add for free Starcraft1 and Warcraft 3 game modes to SC2, just to lure more people into the game.
So why not excel with AoE4 ?
AoE4 could easy be multi platform for.
AoE2 Definite Edition = Classic game mode for AoE4,
Age of Mythology 2 = E-Sport game mode for AoE4,
Company of Heroes 3 = new age for AoE4.
Star Wars - Galactic Battlegrounds 2 = new “E-Sport” age for AoE4.
AoE4 does not have a bad reputation. They haven’t released any information about it yet. It has no reputation. You can be pessimistic about the game, but that, too, is merely speculation.
Lets hope they make something that can compete with Blizzard, honeslty im sick of SC1,SC2,WC3 … just because no one create sustainable RTS and whole RTS franchise are dead i have to play these games…
Like Andy said, no info has been revealed about what makes AoE IV different than every other recently released RTS PC game. Surely the devs know that if they release AoE IV without any new ideas or without any interesting mechanics it is likely to quickly dwindle in popularity. The devs also know players have been waiting several years for AoE IV and they need to make it the best Age game ever.
Age of Empires 4 has already a bad reputation. It was announced too soon after DoW3 and we already know Relic is working on another RTS after AoE4
Yeah, but to compete with Blizzard, you have to support the game as long as Blizzard.
Its not like Grey Goo, Dawn of War III , Empires Apart, Ancestors Legacy or Spellforce 3 are bad games.
But they all were just made and that’s it actually.
Problem is they all do make a game and move to next one, what leaves less and fewer people interested into give money for games with a short life span.
Multiple projects is how a game developer stays in business. If they put their entire team on only one game and it fails they have nothing to fall back. What closed Gas Powered Games was not the end of development of Age of Empires Online alone, but also other projects which were cancelled in the same timeframe.
If AoE IV is well received by the community,center Microsoft will likely continue to fund development. I am surprised Halo Wars 2 has been supported for over a year and a half now and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Exactly this is the problem. All those guys do is reinvent the wheel, without to understand what they are doing it for. Problem is they all assume online population is instant granted. People simply try those games out, see its incomplete and move to next one, leaving less and less people play.
And here is the problem, games makes less and less money, so developers leave to make next game and the cycle repeats till nobody does take those companies any more serious to buy games from them.
Each new game just has a problem to have population more and more divided , so people go back to the games they already have and are still populated.
Making more and more games, does not make more and more people, it does make less and less people play online.
Blizzard had found as only company a right way,
with simply make 1 engine and connect all games into 1 server.
Exactly this “working on Multiple projects” is the reason why they all went bankrupt. It just none of those projects gets dignified release, at least finished. And people do have meanwhile simply enough of it.
Just lets make a simple calculation. Example: You have 900 people who play games.
Average dev makes 3 games. So does it mean each game is played by 300 people ?
In real live game 1 has 600, game 2 has 200, game 3 has just 100 people.
Sure they can make game 4, but it would have like 100 people, what leads to less and less people interested.
Blizzard makes 1 RTS game and this means 900 people play it. In long term Blizzard does secure a long term population, so if they make another expansion, they know game is populated enough to keep people interested to get it.
I’m not sure it matters to the point of this thread, and I assume that Relic will always have multiple titles in development, but I haven’t seen that they have announced that it’s working on another title. Link?
Important point is ESPORT reached to important point , Asian games and soon will be part of Olympic … and whos is gonna be part of ESPORT there? AOE4 or SC2? or other titles …
for now we can say Blizzard has no one to compete with them
in several of their current vacancies, they say, or used to say that those future to be, relicans, could join their unannounced project team. some assume its a another title. maybe one of the DEs.
Not possible due do theme conflict. What you are saying is good idea on paper, but when implemented, it will not make sense in AOE’s setting. But I am all for it if they can do something like this.
or other titles …