[Merged] Will AoE: DE be available on Steam?

Age of Empires: DE I - Discussion
202

I gotta give it to Microsoft, to consistently make bad decisions ever since the release of aoe3.
AoE3, capital city decks, complete 360 turn that a majority didnt like, aoeo GFWL disaster, and why go for cartoony graphics in the first place? the gameplay was fun but greed got to microsoft again. Like with selling booster packs that take 30 minutes to make in age of mythology editor(why not include editor in aoeo, that literally uses the same engine as aom). then a laggy aoe2 HD, that keeps releasing expansions but not fixing the performance issues. then lets talk about aom EE. they are straight up denying the performance issues, they REMOVED features on a game that is called ā€œextendedā€ such as 2v2 party ranked feature among other basic ranked features. On top of that they made a chinese expansion that has insane negative reviews, because its horribly balanced(on purpose by the devs), they reused aom beta assets from 2002, and enlarged regular monkey unit into sun wukong myth unit by giving it a cloth, most units are simple recolors. its one complete badly made mod that broke aom EE, the Random Map option can give chinese maps to players who dont even own the china expansion and thus giving them a screen that forces them to shut down the game since they dont own the objects or map.

Honestly the trailer of AoE 1 remake/remaster looks great, but to make it windows store exclusive? At this point you guys at Microsoft might start thinking there really is no interest in rts anymore, and why is that? Because you keep making consistent bad decisions with this franchise that has so much potential to EASILY overthrow starcraft 2. I hope this big announcement in august is aoe4, and otherwise I fear for the worst for this franchise.

and even then so many people still play AoE, even though its laggy, badly advertised, and no new proper installments in the franchise since forever. When will you guys get the hint, dont you see people replying "aoe4 please " ā€œaoe4 pleaseā€ everytime you make a post on facebook. Dont you see in the E3 twitch chat, aoe4 aoe4 spammed like crazy when you start showing a trailer aoe related? I really hope im proved wrong and that you guys will go in the right direction from now on, and will release aoe1 on steam plus an aoe4 announcement on gamescom. RTS is not a dead genre, you own the best rts franchise in the entire world. that has the best gameplay out of any rts, yet its potential has been wasted for far too long. Please make the people in charge read all these forum posts that have been created in the past day on this forum. Hopefully itll change their mind

Itā€™s been quite obvious what the fans want since the past 15 years. Microsoft is acting like a dense 14 year old teen that doesnt get that a girl likes him

203

@bubble said:
I gotta give it to Microsoft, to consistently make bad decisions ever since the release of aoe3.
ā€¦
I hope this big announcement in august is aoe4, and otherwise I fear for the worst for this franchise.

What makes you think they wont mess up AOE 4 looking at their history?
They donā€™t have a clue about what they are doing, they just try and milk the name.

204

This is really a good RTS game, almost as great as Starcraft I. And I really hope it can become a competitive game. It would be more fun than just play Campaign :slight_smile:

205

just getting my 10 comment badge over here

206

Did someone mention AOEO? Iā€™m still bitter about that! Hopefully AOE DE will help ease the pain somewhat.

207

I am with Simon I was an Alpha/Beta tester for AOEO it ended so terriblyā€¦

208

I agree, just like some games are released to a diverse number of ports (xbox, playstation, PC) Games should also be released at different market places (steam, origin, microsoft store) It benefits the game much more imo as a larger percentage of people will buy the game. Also making sure that the multiplayer aspect of the game works great is paramount to game longevity so that it continues to be played for a long time to come with ease.

209

I agree. No matter how good Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is going to be, I definitely wonā€™t buy it from the Microsoft Store because Iā€™m not willing to support a bad gaming platform which is trying to split up the gaming market even more. Thereā€™s so much wrong with the Microsoft Store.

Steam is a huge gaming platform for several reasons, and one of the reasons is Steam being a gaming platform with many community features. Developers release their games on Steam because of the huge community and because of the communication features between developers and the community.

And about the developers having issues with Steam: Steam canā€™t fix incompetent developers. There are thousands of developers which donā€™t have problems with taking advantage of Steamā€™s features. If the developers of Age of Empires have problems with it, itā€™s their own fault.

210

When they see that they do not sell they will upload it to Steamā€¦ Microsoft takes a good decision and after makes a mistake to sabotage it, classical Microsoft story. Am I right? @jennywaboom

211

@br4zil said:
Releasing it outside of Win10 Store is a must if this game is to have healthy community post-release. The closed up nature of UWP, the lack of basic community features, the disconnection between AoE1 and the larger AoE community on Steam will kill this game pretty quickly.

Halo Wars 2 is Coming to Steam Says Windows Central Senior Editor

Halo Wars 2 had low sales on the Win Store

Rise of Tomb Raider only sold 2% of its PC copies on the WinStore

Quantum Break had to release its game on Steam due to pathetically low sales on the WinStore.

Same for Dead Rising 4 (devs said the 90 days exclusivity deal was already detrimental to the gameā€™s sales on PC).

Microsoft itself released almost every game outside Steam because of sales flop.

Do you guys honestly think AoE1 will be any diferent? the game already has the hard task of competing with the established (and some say, 100% superior) Age of Empires 2 HD on Steam.

Why separate the fanbase even further? Your only losing alot of sales this way.
Being tied to ANY major corporation is bad, but Steam offers something substantial in exchange (steamworks,community boards, the whole infostructure for mods, etc).

Steam also offers proper gaming exposure andā€¦ you knowā€¦ sales.

I strongly agree. Steam has such a big community, an ā€œstableā€ online platform, it is the standard video games library for many users around the world, even Facebook copied the Steam design for its own ā€œFacebook Gameroomā€ video games library platform. I have all the AoE pack from Steam and it would be great if I can complete the collection buying this version also on Steam.

Also, one of the great things from Steam are the achievements, you can compare your achievements and your friendā€™s achievements. It also tells you the time you have played the game and the time your friends have spent playing the game, and many other features. I would probably (50% sure) buy this Definitive Edition from the Windows Store but I would definitely (100% sure) buy it if it is on Steam.

212

@Incredipede said:
I agree. No matter how good Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is going to be, I definitely wonā€™t buy it from the Microsoft Store because Iā€™m not willing to support a bad gaming platform which is trying to split up the gaming market even more. Thereā€™s so much wrong with the Microsoft Store.

Steam is a huge gaming platform for several reasons, and one of the reasons is Steam being a gaming platform with many community features. Developers release their games on Steam because of the huge community and because of the communication features between developers and the community.

And about the developers having issues with Steam: Steam canā€™t fix incompetent developers. There are thousands of developers which donā€™t have problems with taking advantage of Steamā€™s features. If the developers of Age of Empires have problems with it, itā€™s their own fault.

You know I get why people liking Steam, I even get people wanting to keep their games to one store (kind of impossible though today without missing out on a lot), but I donā€™t understand why people think MS has none of community features Steam does?

Developers get access to the community features provided by Steam but they also get those same type of features with Xbox too.

Private messages/chat, voice chat, clubs, ability for devs to communicate directly with the community, online infrastructure, achievements, etc. Game bar for in game pictures, video, and steaming in Mixer. All provided by using the Xbox app on Windows 10. The only major community feature missing is Mod Workshop and trading cards (which are more of a Steam thing anyway). MS has already talked about mod support to I imagine that will happen.

On the backed, devs get direct access to sales data and butch of other statics similar to Steamā€¦ etc.

In a lot of ways, windows store versions are betterā€¦ depends on how you look at, and what you want out of it.

For someone like me for example, Iā€™m not big on modding unless itā€™s via Skyrim or something like that. So the sandboxed nature of UWP, with clean installs/uninstalls, no registry junk, & better security is a plus for me. Also being able to launch windows 10 game without first having to first start a client is also a plus.

213

@w0gb0i said:
LOL -

You play games on a closed system - its called an xbox.

Why does everyone care if its a UWP or steam available?

Would you actually not buy it because you had to open the native store baked into your OS to click ā€˜downloadā€™?

Steam is great, but its great for those games i want to play on there, then theres origin, then theres UWP.

Who cares where the game comes from, its on your pc and a couple of clicks away.

I dont want to be rude but that clearly shows that you are a casual gamer and that you have no idea how marketing and sales work. If you dont trust my word then just accept the fact that developers pay steam 30% ~ of the full price for their games to be on steam. If you still dont think its a big deal I dont know what to say

214

@jennywaboom said:

Weā€™ve chosen to release ā€œAge of Empires: Definitive Editionā€ exclusively in the Windows Store and weā€™re excited about what that entails, including tons of Xbox Live goodness (achievements, cloud saves, multiplayer on the fastest, more reliable gaming network and more).

please reconsider , nothing angers pc gamers more than forcing them to leave the comfort of Steam.
this is a game that has a very small player base today (litterally old guys like us who played the original and still play video games on pc)
if you want this tiny player base to grow - place it on steam , let the comunity build itself

215

@Incredipede said:
I agree. No matter how good Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is going to be, I definitely wonā€™t buy it from the Microsoft Store because Iā€™m not willing to support a bad gaming platform which is trying to split up the gaming market even more. Thereā€™s so much wrong with the Microsoft Store.

Steam is a huge gaming platform for several reasons, and one of the reasons is Steam being a gaming platform with many community features. Developers release their games on Steam because of the huge community and because of the communication features between developers and the community.

And about the developers having issues with Steam: Steam canā€™t fix incompetent developers. There are thousands of developers which donā€™t have problems with taking advantage of Steamā€™s features. If the developers of Age of Empires have problems with it, itā€™s their own fault.

You know I get why people liking Steam (Iā€™ve used it for years), I even get people wanting to keep their games to one store (kind of impossible though today without missing out on a lot), but I donā€™t understand why people think MS has none of community features Steam does?

Developers get access to the community features provided by Steam but they also get those same type of features with Xbox too.

Private messages/chat, voice chat, clubs, ability for devs to communicate directly with the community, online infrastructure, achievements, etc. Game bar for in game pictures, video, and steaming in Mixer. All provided by using the Xbox app on Windows 10. The only major community feature missing is Mod Workshop and trading cards (which are more of a Steam thing anyway). MS has already talked about mod support to I imagine that will happen.

On the backed, devs get direct access to sales data and butch of other statics similar to Steamā€¦ etc.

In a lot of ways, windows store versions are betterā€¦ depends on how you look at, and what you want out of it.

For someone like me for example, Iā€™m not big on modding unless itā€™s via Skyrim or something like that. So the sandboxed nature of UWP, with clean installs/uninstalls, no registry junk, & better security is a plus for me. Also being able to launch windows 10 game without having to first start a client is also a plus.

216

@ForehandChip46 said:

@w0gb0i said:
LOL -

You play games on a closed system - its called an xbox.

Why does everyone care if its a UWP or steam available?

Would you actually not buy it because you had to open the native store baked into your OS to click ā€˜downloadā€™?

Steam is great, but its great for those games i want to play on there, then theres origin, then theres UWP.

Who cares where the game comes from, its on your pc and a couple of clicks away.

I dont want to be rude but that clearly shows that you are a casual gamer and that you have no idea how marketing and sales work. If you dont trust my word then just accept the fact that developers pay steam 30% ~ of the full price for their games to be on steam. If you still dont think its a big deal I dont know what to say

Developers pay 30% regardless of where the game is sold. That is the industry standard, even GOG getā€™s a 30% cut so does MS in the Windows 10 Store. Only time that doesnā€™t apply is when a publisher releases their games on a platform they own. Like Valve ā†’ Steam, MS ā†’ Windows 10, CD Projekt ā†’ GOG, etc.

217

@QuirkyTechie said:

@ForehandChip46 said:

@w0gb0i said:
LOL -

You play games on a closed system - its called an xbox.

Why does everyone care if its a UWP or steam available?

Would you actually not buy it because you had to open the native store baked into your OS to click ā€˜downloadā€™?

Steam is great, but its great for those games i want to play on there, then theres origin, then theres UWP.

Who cares where the game comes from, its on your pc and a couple of clicks away.

I dont want to be rude but that clearly shows that you are a casual gamer and that you have no idea how marketing and sales work. If you dont trust my word then just accept the fact that developers pay steam 30% ~ of the full price for their games to be on steam. If you still dont think its a big deal I dont know what to say

Developers pay 30% regardless of where the game is sold. That is the industry standard, even GOG getā€™s a 30% cut so does MS in the Windows 10 Store. Only time that doesnā€™t apply is when a publisher releases their games on a platform they own. Like Valve ā†’ Steam, MS ā†’ Windows 10, CD Projekt ā†’ GOG, etc.

Yea thats what im saying. You either have a REAL store/programm that can rival steam like battle.net/origin/uplay/gog or you pay the price to get it onto steam. Blizzard even goes with steam on the Call of Duty series because they realize that it would be beneficial to the games sales instead of putting it onto battle.net

218

@QuirkyTechie said:

@Incredipede said:
I agree. No matter how good Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is going to be, I definitely wonā€™t buy it from the Microsoft Store because Iā€™m not willing to support a bad gaming platform which is trying to split up the gaming market even more. Thereā€™s so much wrong with the Microsoft Store.

Steam is a huge gaming platform for several reasons, and one of the reasons is Steam being a gaming platform with many community features. Developers release their games on Steam because of the huge community and because of the communication features between developers and the community.

And about the developers having issues with Steam: Steam canā€™t fix incompetent developers. There are thousands of developers which donā€™t have problems with taking advantage of Steamā€™s features. If the developers of Age of Empires have problems with it, itā€™s their own fault.

You know I get why people liking Steam (Iā€™ve used it for years), I even get people wanting to keep their games to one store (kind of impossible though today without missing out on a lot), but I donā€™t understand why people think MS has none of community features Steam does?

Developers get access to the community features provided by Steam but they also get those same type of features with Xbox too.

Private messages/chat, voice chat, clubs, ability for devs to communicate directly with the community, online infrastructure, achievements, etc. Game bar for in game pictures, video, and steaming in Mixer. All provided by using the Xbox app on Windows 10. The only major community feature missing is Mod Workshop and trading cards (which are more of a Steam thing anyway). MS has already talked about mod support to I imagine that will happen.

On the backed, devs get direct access to sales data and butch of other statics similar to Steamā€¦ etc.

In a lot of ways, windows store versions are betterā€¦ depends on how you look at, and what you want out of it.

For someone like me for example, Iā€™m not big on modding unless itā€™s via Skyrim or something like that. So the sandboxed nature of UWP, with clean installs/uninstalls, no registry junk, & better security is a plus for me. Also being able to launch windows 10 game without having to first start a client is also a plus.

Who cares about the community features of the windows/xbox live store ? How many programs do you want me to use to talk to my online friends ? I will certainly not add people on the xbox live/windows store community thing if its not necessary because why would I ? There are superior platforms out there which do the same with more people and a better store. I dont get why it doesnt bother people that their games are split up in 6 different libraries and over 6 different applications. Id rather stick with steam and have it all on there

219

Dont forget M$ has a terrible track record with their platforms, als the windows store is being ripped apart by both players and developers. Why pick something new that adds extra restrictions and knowing M$ is uggy as ā– ā– ā– ā–  and poorly supported over something you know that still allows you to play the game as you want it?
UWP is nothing short of M$ turning pcā€™s into an xbox, this is not what pc gaming is about, this is not why people like playing on pc.

I mean all the reasons the CM and mods bring up in favour for the decision are things that are also available on steam. The only difference is steam gives the players some freedom still, the microsoft store locks players in as much as possible. There is 0 benefit to using it from a gamers perspective.

220

The one big question I have that doesnā€™t make sense to me is if both the Microsoft store and steam take 30%, why wouldnā€™t they sell on steam, which has an established market, and already has AOE for sale?
If br4zil can answer I am interested in his opinion.

221

I donā€™t care about the distribution path, thatā€™s a business decision and for me itā€™s not related to the gameā€™s quality. I care about the game becoming great :slight_smile: