game searching time too long !?!?
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yes aoe3 is free 
That was the kiss of death from the studio, so I don’t recommend anyone else seek the same treatment.
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Effectively, they cemented the death of the game (AoE3) with that failed sales strategy.
Consequences: Canceled DLC, no more news or events, no more patches.
Do we want the same for other games in the franchise? Obviously not.
The real problem is that they didn’t consider “what type of game” a “free-to-play” game works for. Already in 2025, with enough data, and even some articles, it’s known that free-to-play only works in two cases:
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If the genre and type of video game are expected to attract a sufficient number of players “who then buy cosmetics” consistently and over time, while more continue to come out (Shooters, Mobas, Gachas, etc)
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Mobile game scams, or Ubisoft scams. The kind that eat up easily your game money, and quickly ask for real money from your parents’ wallet, to advance in the game.
And the Age of Empires franchise is primarily an “empire-building” RTS, a type of game with a “very exclusive” niche and fewer players than other genres, such as Sports, MOBAs, MMMORPGs, Gachas, Shooters.
Free-to-play wasn’t going to work; it only served to “make quick money” from those interested after playing the free-to-play game for a bit and are compulsive buyer of DLC. But at the same time, those people who “could” have bought the game out of interest and then abandoned it didn’t do so because they “tried it for free,” losing potential buyers in the process. Worse, we lost the customer who buys the game, doesn’t like it, but completes it because they “already bought it.”
The State of Video Gaming in 2025
Now, I’m going to share an article about this:
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Perhaps many have noticed that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have recently agreed to increase the price of consoles and video games. Well, this is true:
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Over the past few years, the cost of video games has NOT INCREASED AT ALL in proportion to the increase in the value of money. However: THE COST OF MAKING VIDEO GAMES HAS INCREASED.
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Therefore, the companies that “invested” in them, when they considered profits as “investment-cost,” have generated losses at the end of recent years, the worst of all being in 2022, with a loss of videogame players in the world.
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This was the reason why Sega laid off employees in 2023 to cover up their poor investment in the stock market (perhaps they had already bought an island or golden mansions, i don´t know), believing that the profits would be exponential with all their games, but that wasn’t the case. To find a scapegoat, they laid off employees from all their companies, including Relic, even though AoE4 Sultans Ascend sold like hotcakes.
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There’s a reason for the layoffs that I’m just now realizing: Employees with a long history should be paid bonuses and given rights, like health insurance. But if they quickly fire employees, even the good ones, on very short-term contracts, they avoid paying workers’ rights—literally, it’s overexploitation. At least for AoE4, it was resolved “in part” with Relic’s change of production company and Microsoft’s inclusion of more Age franchise groups to work on the game.
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Well, this has been discussed COUNTLESS times on the forum, but it needs to be said again: We’re not in good shape in the video game industry; WE ARE IN CRISIS.
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The worst thing any company could do would be to start discounting or charging less than the value of their games or expansions.
And well, it’s a shame, but the reality is that if it’s for the sake of the game, I’d rather the base game continue to be “sold.”
AoE2 has already doubled (2X) its price
In fact, in 2025, AoE2 Definitive Edition doubled its price on STEAM. It was cheaper, mind you, WAS, it went up by “X2” after they announced they were going to sell ALL the old DLC “Attached to the base game.”
It’s the new strategy: They know the game is in demand, so people who buy it should buy the entire content and not pieces together.
AoE4 what we can expect?
Well, I still want quality content, and as buyers, we have to be firm about that:
“We’ll keep buying DLC, if it’s guaranteed quality.”
I don’t mind them releasing more variants, but I hope they at least have the level of development they bothered to give Templars or Lancaster, at least at the level of Historicity.
On the other hand, don’t rule out the Long Campaigns: The Sultan Ascend campaign so far is my favorite in the game, and I hope for more like it in the future.
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Yes, I would call it the kiss of Judas or the mafia’s kiss of death… 
Yes, I think the next DLC will bring 1 HRE campaign or 8 historical battles for each civ in the base game…