First of all, hi all. This is a very very long threads (maybe i’ll split it on more pages)
Looking at most of the online reactions for the announcement of the new “Asian Dynasties” expansion, it’s pretty clear that most of them are essentially negative, as they didn’t introduce the content most requested by the casual community—new campaigns and new civilizations.
What we have are four new variants that, while well-executed, don’t meet the expectations of the majority of fans: yes, casual players.
Expectations about what this new DLC would bring were obviously very high, not only because of the leaks released by Beasty (since he’s considered a star on Reddit) but, above all, at least for me, due of the time that had passed since the release of the last DLC, Sultan’s Ascend, which was the best-selling expansion in the franchise’s history.
Of course, after two years of waiting, most people’s disappointment is understandable, and you only had to look at the comments on the videos and online announcements: vox populi vox dei, as they say in Latin.
But why, in my opinion, have we reached the point where in two years there have been no new campaigns, civilizations, or more single-player content?
I’ll try to give my interpretation.
- AOE4 is no longer profitable for XBOX and therefore is reducing investment in it. But why? In my opinion, there are several reasons:
Most of the casual players, who are the user base that funds the game and allows the developer and publisher to earn money, have left. What we see today from the STEAM statistics and even from the AOE4 subreddit, are essentially professional players or multiplayer players, who aren’t concerned with new campaigns, stories, narratives, and/or historical battles; balance is what matters. After Sultan’s Ascend, what we’ve seen are updates focused almost exclusively on multiplayer, from siege to unit stats. Without casual players, there are no profits.
But why are casual players so important? Because they represent the majority of the AOE franchise’s users, and if you don’t offer content tailored to them, the game will simply die in the long run, because the publisher (in this case, World’s Edge and MS) won’t want to lose money.
The importance of the casual audience was also recently highlighted in a recent article by PC Gamer during an interview with the developers of the new Dawn of War 4 (King Art Games).
“Dawn of War 4 developer King Art knows what you all really want: 'Overwhelmingly, it’s singleplayer content and the campaign’. “One of the weird things about being a lover of RTS games—aside from the fact that it sometimes feels like the games industry has left us behind—is how often the people making these games, and certainly the ones financing them, seem to forget that the initial popularity of the genre was driven by high-quality singleplayer campaigns. F*olks look at StarCraft 2, the RTS that’s dominated the genre for 15 years, and think it’s all down to competitive multiplayer and esports. And that’s how we got Stormgate: a game designed by veterans, built to tap into the love of Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2. And it launched with an unfinished, uninspired campaign, and has struggled ever since then. While the competitive scene is certainly responsible for both games’ enviable longevity, most players won’t even touch multiplayer. What got most people through the door were the best-in-class campaigns*.”
(source: Dawn of War 4 developer King Art knows what you all really want: 'Overwhelmingly, it's singleplayer content and the campaign' | PC Gamer).
Developers of Capture AGE (creators of the Chronicles of Greece series) stated the same argument when announcing the first installment of the Chronicles of Greece saga:
“What we’ve been doing with DLCs like Animated Profile Icons, Victors and Vanquished, and now Chronicles: Battle for Greece, is a bit of experimenting. The AoE II: DE community is pretty big and spread out. Our most visible cohort tends to be our competitive community, tournament organizers, and streamers, but there’s a rather massive and understated majority of our players that show up week over week and month over month just to enjoy their favorite Campaigns. They love Campaign content exclusively, and they’re playing them over and over again”
(source: Pre-Order Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Chronicles: Battle for Greece - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio)
Relic itself has stated that the single-player portion is actually the most important part of an RTS, despite some people thinking that COH is focused on multiplayer:
"One of the things that emerged from our research and throughout development was that we wanted to make the campaign map a more immersive experience, to make you feel like a general looking at a map, and to immerse you in the Italian setting. That’s why we added a high level of fidelity to the campaign map [which was much simpler visually in Ardenne’s Assault—editor’s note].
DL: Years have passed since Ardenne’s Assault, and players today expect more when playing a high-level strategy game; they expect to be immersed in a 3D world, and that’s precisely what led us to create the most beautiful version of Italy ever seen in a strategy game. As for the gameplay… as you well know, Ardenne’s Assault was highly praised, both by journalists and players, precisely because the single-player experience in strategy games (so related to RTS genre) is much more important than you might think!
SINGLEPLAYER EXPERIENCES IN STRATEGY GAMES ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU MIGHT THINK. Sure, PvP is where you can find the action—if you go to YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of PvP battles—but the majority of players love the single-player content and love playing the campaigns. (source: Company of Heroes 3: intervista agli sviluppatori | The Games Machine);
b) Relic is now a much smaller studio than it once was and is no longer able to employ many employees to develop larger content, especially without significant investment. Unfortunately, in the last year, Relic has faced massive layoffs (approximately 260-270 people) and has essentially become independent, although the majority of its shares are held by the Emona Capital fund (which also owns BlackBird Interactive, composed of many Relic veterans). Relic Entertainment partners with investment firm | GamesIndustry.biz. The studio’s strategy has changed, and in the future, they will focus on smaller experiences (such as the latest mobile game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFPrhogO6I), support for its own titles (COH and DOW), and remakes or remasters. Relic was at Gamescom this week, and I also thought they were there for DOW4, which is actually in development at King Art Games (developers of Iron Hazard) and already looks spectacular (graphically, it will be powered by the Unity engine, which also powers many UBISOFT titles). For more context, here’s the interview with King Art Games (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TY_dYhAnWg&t=220s). It’s clear that Games Workshop, which holds the rights to the Warhammer world, contacted several developers, including Relic, I assume, having created the first masterpiece, Dawn of War. The fact that different developers were chosen, however, could be linked either to Games Workshop’s lack of confidence in Relic after the failure of Dawn of War 3, or to their lack of staff to work on a new AAA title. Relic’s presence at Gamescom could also be linked to their search for new funding for some other project. Additionally, Relic has lost many of its longtime developers who left the studio some time ago;
- The entire decision-making and development process for AOE4 was focused on the multiplayer audience, and this is also evident in the AOE4 Companion Book.
https://forums.ageofempires.com/uploads/default/original/3X/4/6/463311901980abf484f0452a573683f6878c5f81.jpeg
And this is the reason behind the following aspects:
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Giant weapons;
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stylized graphics with low-detail textures on units;
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locked zoom (yes, there’s a “free camera zoom,” but it’s a total joke);
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the lack of physics (AOE3DE and Company of Heroes seem like a whole other level in this regard);
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the lack of diplomacy, taunts, and AI interactions. In AOE2, AOE3, and AOM, you can ask your allies to give you resources or to attack and defend someone or something, and each CPU character has their own personality. AOE4 has nothing like this;
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the substantial poverty of biomes in terms of fauna (although I saw that the new DLC would feature brown sheep and cacti).
AOE4 was very, very expensive to make (I wouldn’t be surprised if development and marketing costs exceeded $100 million), and despite excellent overall sales, around 5-6 million copies (including expansions), the game was often sold at deep discounts.
When a game is sold at a steep discount for many months or years, it means things aren’t going as planned during the design phase.
- 6 million copies sold at 50 euros is worth approximately $250 million;
- 6 million copies sold at 30 euros is worth $150 million.
There’s a difference of $100 million, which is huge. Furthermore, we need to subtract the 20% of tax to pay to STEAM .
The game was also available on GamePass. I played it on GamePass, and to help the developers, I bought all the DLC released on GamePass.
So there’s also this variable to consider.
World’s Edge rightly believed that the sequel to the world’s most famous RTS saga would sell a lot of copies, and that’s a correct reasoning in my opinion, but, as already highlighted in point 1), they targeted the wrong audience.
Multiplayer is very important for an RTS game, and for any game in fact, because it gives it visibility. World’s Edge’s reasoning wasn’t wrong in principle: “There are many streamers, like Beasty, Likador, Viper, and DAUT, all AOE2 professionals, who have large followings on YouTube and Twitter, so if they promote the game, then sales will increase significantly.”
That’s not a bad thing, in my opinion. But the potential of Twitch and YouTube to give visibility to a title should be accompanied by the content most potential buyers want: new campaigns, historical and cooperative battles, and greater immersion—meaning improved graphics, animations, etc.
AOE4’s campaigns, though well-designed (and with an excellent designer, Noble SMITH), were intended as a long tutorial for the multiplayer, which should have been the lion’s share of this game.
This is one of the reasons why the biomes were essentially lacking in detail, with two or three animals common to all maps, and the maps themselves lacking life or interaction, something that was present in AOE2, but especially in AOE3 and AOM.
So we return to point 1.
Beyond Sultan’s Ascend, there has been no more content for single-player players.
The latest expansion will introduce a Rogue Lite mode, but I don’t think this is the real turning point.
- Graphics and Lack of Immersion
It’s strange to see how some players, especially those more oriented to multiplayer scene, have consistently criticized those who called AOE4’s graphics too stylized (someone said cartoonish) and lacking in detail, with exaggerated weapons and proportions, as well as a substantial “plastic” feel that characterized the entire game design. The important thing was readability, lack of confusion during combats and performances.
This is an aspect I can partially agree with, but it’s the developer’s skill in using a graphics engine (in the case of AOE4, the Essence Engine, Relic’s proprietary engine) to make it as scalable as possible.
And a game’s scalability should always start from the highest possible details (like this one. for clarity, this is Company of Heroes 3, also from Relic)
to the lowest details
The presentation of AOE4, its launch, and its reception were always accompanied by strong criticism regarding its graphics, especially since it was the flagship title of an iconic series, released 16 years after AOE3. So expectations, including mine, considering the name Relic, were sky-high.
Some people underestimate the impact that the graphics criticism had on the game’s success: unfortunately, many players never played the game, after reading the forums and watching videos, where the graphics were rife.
I could post numerous videos from YouTubers, some with thousands of followers, openly criticizing this aspect.
All the graphics criticisms were collected in a single thread that was also highlighted in the specialized press:
For my part, I’ve supported the game up until now, hoping for further improvements.
Season V was truly a wonderful surprise, because for the first time it introduced significant graphical improvements that were appreciated by everyone.
This also rekindled the hope of many casual players who have begun to frequent the forums again, hoping for further graphical improvements with subsequent DLCs.
Unfortunately, the current situation is that AOE4 is increasingly losing funding, so I really don’t think there will be any further graphical improvements.
Yet Relic, in the early stages of development, had also considered a more realistic approach.
The graphics engine had great potential if well-developed, but the main problem is that the Essence Engine was never developed for this type of RTS and also had many performance issues, which have certainly improved with all the updates.
Furthermore, the developers and Adam Isgreen had promised full support to modders, who could introduce or improve elements that the developers, due to lack of time or money, had not implemented.
A classic example is the lack of blood in the game, which was omitted to avoid restrictions in some regions of the world.
This is an issue that has its marketing reasons, of course, but it could have been resolved with a separate DLC (like Total War) or with the help of modders:
Remember?
I’ve never seen any mod that introduced blood or more gore to battles. This was another omission that affected casual players.
AOE4 certainly introduced some fundamental innovations to the series (which I hope will be retained in future titles), namely the walls, which transformed the siege experience in a much better and more realistic way, in my opinion, but, above all, the audio: the sounds, voices, the noise of weapons and battles deserve a 10/10. This is the best that could be achieved in an RTS.
But if they had combined the fantastic audio with next-gen graphics, as one would expect from a 2021 game and from Relic, then we might have had the definitive RTS if, at the same time, priority had been given to casual players.
I think, however, that a significant portion of the funding was used to develop aspects of the game that weren’t essential and didn’t contribute much to player immersion.
While audio is essential for player engagement, millions of dollars investing to make documentaries around the world could have been better used to further optimize the graphics engine, improving animations and increasing the number of polygons on the units, the sense of impact of the soldiers during the battles and also improving physics.
But also improving the fauna, make the maps more vivid with different kind of animals, mercenary camps, etc. and, above all, animating the chickens (sorry, it’s a meme, but it gets the point across).
AOE4 was developed from the beginning with the help of the Age of Empires Council, a group of players meant to represent all types of players, from professionals to casual players.
The Council also included the most famous AOE2 streamers and professionals, and in my opinion, their advice ended up having too much of an impact on development.
There are many examples; from over-the-top weapons to make them easily distinguishable from above to the impact of arrows.
I was fortunate enough to participate in the first closed alpha of AOE4, and beyond the (numerous) criticisms of the graphics, there were several truly interesting elements.
For example, archers atop the walls had attack bonuses, and I remember clearly that with two arrows you could eliminate an enemy approaching the walls, as is right.
This was heavily criticized by professional players (there were even discussions on Reddit years ago), and this feature was removed in the next alpha version. Another possibility is that the downsizing of buildings was also due to pressure from professionals, as stated by those who participated in the council (there were also references on Reddit).
This brings us to point 2): the game focused too much on making the game an e-sports title, failing to do so and essentially displeasing the majority of users.
This leads to the current situation:
Without substantial single-player content, the game will not be able to generate satisfactory revenue for Xbox, which is therefore starting to rationalize its investments.
For example, Noble Smith was the Narrative Director for the entire AOE series since 2019 and was an excellent writer. He was fired from Xbox (and World’s Edge) two years ago, shortly after the release of the Sultan’s Ascend DLC. This could also be one of the reasons we don’t have other campaigns, because they’re hard to write.
Noble Smith’s firing certainly occurred before the 9,000 layoffs at Microsoft, all of which are linked to Microsoft CEO Nadella’s foolish attempt to bet billions of dollars on the AI bubble.
So, if AOE4 hasn’t produced consistent returns compared to what was forecast, funding will begin to be reduced.
What do I think could happen?
I have three hypotheses:
- Xbox will significantly reduce support for the AOE franchise after releasing the latest expansions for the various titles, from AOMRE to AOE4;
- AOE4 will continue to be supported with sporadic updates and some minor DLC, especially with civilization variants that are less expensive than a completely new civilization;
- The funding that was earmarked for Capture Age for the Chronicles saga of AOE2, for AOMRE, AOE3, and AOE4 will be redirected to the development of a new AOE. This might be the strangest hypothesis, but I don’t think it’s that far from the truth. Why?
Last survey in June 2024
4 New survey!
This survey conducted by Microsoft (not Relic) covered all AOE games, and there were many questions about AOE4. This is the most divisive title, from graphics to lack of features and more.
The last part of this survey was about “graphics” and what people would like to see: “realistic or stylized, highly detailed units, physics, terrain effects, and more.”
This survey was released in June, shortly after the massive layoffs that hit RELIC.
- World’s Edge was looking for a Lead Engineer with Unreal Engine experience.
Rumor: Future Age of Empires Games Could Be Using Unreal Engine 5
You don’t ask “what graphics would you like to see” and you don’t look for a Lead Engineer with Unreal Engine experience if you’re not planning on developing a new AOE5.
If I had to make a prediction, I wouldn’t be surprised if a new AOE was announced next year during the XBOX Showcase, because it’s XBOX’s 30th anniversary (so it will be a huge event), and if it launched in 2027, even alongside the new console (which will essentially be a PC).
A new AOE could also be set in ancient times, from Sumer to the Roman Empire. Ancient times are the most beloved era, along with the Middle Ages, and there isn’t a current-generation historical AOE set in this period.
Furthermore, 2027 is the 30th anniversary of AOE (it was released in November 1997).
What if development of the Saga Chronicles of AOE2, a trilogy set in ancient times, was stalled (with the exception of the second DLC on Alexander the Great, which will be released soon) precisely because the setting will be covered by a new AOE?
If a new title is in the works, I sincerely hope the focus this time is on single-player, offering significant content to casual gamers.
The upcoming Dawn of War 4, for example, will offer four playable factions, four campaigns, more than 70 missions, and lots of base building, and each campaign will be dynamic.
There will also be a “World Conquest” map, the famous strategic map I often talk about and which would offer infinite replayability for casual players.
Of course, the best thing of all would be to see, if there were one, a World’s Edge roadmap for 2026 announcing massive support for AOE4 with lots of new single-player content and additions for casual players.
The latest DLCs suggest a different strategy, but I’d be happy to be wrong about this. Despite the graphical aspects and many shortcomings, I also like AOE4, and I think I’ve always said so in all my posts. Otherwise, I would never have bought any DLC, not even the latest Knights and Roses.
Let’s wait until next year and hope for the best.
Sorry for the length of this thread.
