I’ve said it multiple times before: there are individuals at the core of the WE management team who genuinely despise AOE3 and want it to fade into obscurity. We’ve seen similar attitudes in other AOE communities, and frankly, there’s no other reasonable explanation for their behavior. But once you recognize this underlying bias, everything suddenly makes perfect sense.
AOE3 was systematically excluded from all major promotions and competitions. At the time, a community volunteer manager tried to argue that Age of Mythology was also left out. But I pointed out then that Age of Mythology DE hadn’t even been released yet, so its absence was understandable. But now, with the launch of Age of Mythology Retold, what’s the one title still left out in the cold? Age of Empires III.
If, at this point, some of you still believe this is anything other than deliberate neglect—if you think it’s just a reflection of AOE3’s own shortcomings or the player community’s fault—then, honestly, you’re either in denial or suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
What We Must Do
We need to make our voices heard—loud and clear—on every Age of Empires social media channel, from Twitter to official forums. Every announcement, every post, every video—wherever they engage with the community, we must be there. We need to demand answers and visibility for AOE3.
Tell them why AOE3 deserves the same level of support and recognition as the rest of the franchise. Point out the blatant bias and lack of updates. Remind them that we are still here, and we won’t let AOE3 be erased.
If we stay silent, they’ll continue to pretend we don’t exist.
Now, let’s address the key question: Why does at least one person in the core management team—someone in a highly influential position—seem to despise AOE3 so much? Allow me to put forward a bold hypothesis: because AOE3 isn’t similar enough to AOE2.
Yes, that’s it. Nothing more complicated than a deep-seated bias. And not just any bias—this person has likely been an active opponent of the AOE3 community in the past, someone who has clashed with its players before.
Now, take a look at what has happened: Age of Mythology, despite having a significantly smaller player base, has received far more attention and care—endless exposure, a major DLC, even PlayStation version. And let’s not forget: the entire Age of Empires development team was reassigned to work on a game with a player count likely half the size of AOE3’s. Why? Because it resembles AOE2 more.
And AOE3? Remember the biggest update in AOE3’s history in 2023? It came right before the Age of Empires anniversary event. And what happened during the livestream?
Not. A. Single. Word.
Not even a screenshot.
Why? Are they so afraid that AOE3 might gain even the slightest bit of exposure?
Over the years we see all kinds of apologists finding all kinds of different excuses for the negligence like “but AOE3 has fewer players…” “but AOEX just got a new update…” “but AOEY is also excluded…” “but AOE3 is not esports…” “but the games are made by different teams…” “but AOE3 engine is difficult to use…” “but it’s just a free update…” “but there are priorities…” ….
Every time WE refutes it with better treatment to the other games when they were in the same situation. Poor coordination.
Or you can choose to believe AOE3 is simply unlucky and narrowly misses any of the 100 opportunities to receive the spotlight. Maybe you should also consider buying the Brooklyn Bridge.
Now after AOMR, same engine, same team, similar or smaller playerbase, similar care from the devs but MASSIVELY better exposure from WE, no more excuses can be made. So they officially killed AOE3 to bury their hypocrisies.
This is even sadder than just “not profitable enough” because it means that even if it for some reason, AoE3 numbers start to grow, even if it becomes more profitable than AoEO (fever dream, but stay with me), even if aliens came at gun point (laser point?) and forced every single human to buy and play AoE3, WE still wouldn’t restart support.
I really think is political related too
There are too sensitive themes that AoE III timeframe explores like colonization, slavery, natives megadeth, etc
If MS/WE had such an issue with the game’s timeline, I highly doubt they would have supported the game as long as they did.
My issue is not that support ended (we all knew the day was coming) but the manner in which it did. It was so abrupt and careless. The game deserved a proper send-off patch.
It just comes down to incompetence across the board. I can’t help but think there was some maliciousness involved too. Why? we’ll never know.
