Microsoft has just announced legacy game will no longer be available for purchase

[Jonasnee8581]

@Darkness01101

What technology is no longer being supported? The internet?

Lan exist in the original and will presumably continue to work.

@Darkness01101

How about an 80% or 90% off discount for players being force-migrated DE if they want to keep playing AoE3 MP? The past AoE3 CD and AoE3 classic purchases helped fund DE and the franchise, after all

DE “full game” cost 20 euros and you can play it for free without buying that.

When the game goes on sale you can get it for just 10ish euros. I really can’t see how you find it reasonable to ask for a currently in development game to cost 2 euros, that would practically not even pay server rents.

Also there are 3 millionish owners of the steam version of AOE3CE.

@Darkness01101

PPS: The AoE3 Steam Store page links to this old 2021 page, to be able to download an MP patch to play the legacy title online: Age of Empires III: CC ESO Patch - Age of Empires - World’s Edge Studio. With the wording on that page, it seems pretty likely that MS just decided to now flat-out stop supporting MP on their own and under their own pretenses… for… reasons? They couldn’t keep one small server online to handle the tiny amount of players still playing it, apparently? That old website says this (remember, this is an old 2021 web page):

Because the server cost money?

Because recently a microsoft dev need to go in and give it a nice “kick”?

Because if you want to play MP DE is the obvious choice?

If you want to continue to play the CE version in MP you can just use something like Hamachi, sure it is not the same experience but its not like you literally have no option.

@Darkness01101

Oh yeah, and what about the AoE3 classic MP leaderboards? Are those being taken down, too? (if they even exist)

Presumably, but realistically the leaderboards have long since stopped meaning anything as people above 1st liut deteriorate if they don’t play.

[OperaticShip743]

I may replay this version from time to time, for the campaigns. The Warchiefs campaigns are not ruined in this version.

[Darkness01101]

Thanks for your perspective/thoughts!

[Josh1Axel]

[KG19991380]

remember y all, LAN will still work, so using alternatives like aoe2’s voobly situation is still available

[StatedOregon5]

Honestly, even though I don’t play this game anymore, these news make me sad!
This game brought in so many good memories. From when i was a kid that couldn’t wait to get my hands on that game(and when i got it I couldnt run the game cuz pc was windows 98) to a quite a few years ago when started learning multiplayer and how to proper play the game!
I have made quite a few friends from life in ESO, and i am quite grateful for that!!

Gladly we still have gameranger and other options to play the game!

[MikaelJakson_Hee_Hee]

If they actually cared, they could just make it like Counter Strike where you have the old version as a Beta of the new version so you can switch back to the old version if you want to

[Lyvione]

Bro if u actually had a brain, u would be able to realize that MS is the only company that ACTUALLY cares about RTS. Its been 20 years…what do u want a “game as a service”. EA cut the servers for BFME2 after 5 YEARS. And MS kept the aoe3 classic servers for 20 years so 80 to 500 people can play. Thats called “caring”. EA - not caring.
See the AoEII-AoK classic dudes - they play on voobly. But i know, they are adults and, unlike people like you that cant fathom the idea that everything has a beginning and an end, they do know and are well aware of that. Classic games are called classic because they are no longer supported and 99% of them move to the GOG store for legacy preservation. Thats literally the point of the “stopkillinggames” movement. Everybody is aware that there comes a time where a game served its purpouse, and it shouldnt be killed but preserved.

Can u buy a legacy Age Of Kings today?? No…because its a game that served its purpouse and is preserved by its community.

[DrMaxy4142]

Who are you talking to ?
" If you actually had a brain" you would realize that we are allowed to be sad, about an era ending.

[Tetsuryu]

Je me demande comment vous allez faire pour le développement futur de Wars of Liberty avec le retrait de l’ancienne version du jeu de steam, sachant que j’ai adoré jouer à ce mod avant la sortie de la definitive edition.

En tout cas merci à votre staff qui s’occupe avec amour de ce mod qui est pour moi actuellement le meilleur d’aoe3 legacy

[CalapAdih]

[Lyvione]

I was responding to @MikaelJakson_Hee_He1
@DrMaxy4142 I never said “you should be - eh whatever”. Im not gonna tell anybody how to feel.

I also grew up with this game, and ive been modding this game for years. My extended edition submod for the “Knights and Barbarians” mod is like 70% done. Im also sad, but i can put my emotions aside, be rational and say - “understandable”, it was inevitable. And i pointed out that MS kept the server for as long as they could for these players before the MP playerbase started dropping in the double digits.

Yesterday i logged in and saw only 70 people playing MP on classic. Nobody in their right mind will support a 20 y old server tech so these 70 to max 150 dudes can hop once in a blue moon and play a game. And these people refused to install the MP patch - MS wanted to close the old ESO server back in 2021…nobody installed the patch and they still kept the server going for like almost 4 years.

People that dont even play the game are complaining because “aww it was my childhood”…yes bro it was mine too. I grew up playing this and reverse-engineering the code so i can mod the game. I know the classic game from the inside out.

People like this guy above are complaining :
@StatedOregon5 [Age Insider] Age IV Beta
“Honestly, even though I don’t play this game anymore, these news make me sad!”

Yes bro, you are not playing the game, and you will certainly not hop on the ESO and play a game against humans anytime soon. U are playing aoe4…wtf are u b****ing about.

The bandwagoning and people complaining for the sake of complaining is crazy these days

[LtSturm1]

This is an anti-Wars-of-Liberty conspiration.

[Adribird90]

The user in question has only said that it makes him sad, regardless of when he played it (just like me), it’s simply a matter of nostalgia. I know some of you are frustrated, but you have to calm down a bit.

[Darkness01101]

@Lyvione

but i can put my emotions aside

Would be helpful to put your emotions aside before telling forum members they lack your intelligence and robotic ability to switch off nostalgia, too. It would be per the forum conduct code, as well:

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

• Name-calling
• Ad hominem attacks
• … etc

Remind me to not play ‘Knights and Barbarians’. Would be nice to have more humbleness behind the endeavor, is all

EDIT: If it removes home shipments and cards I might play it, though

[EricTheRed283]

Its all over now no more offical ESO games for legacy Aoe III

[Pikilic]

RIP ESO. Thank you EricTheRed for sharing maps. It is hard to believe that the online version game just came to an end after two decades.

[Ekdal1378]

Q.D.E.P Ensemble Studios Online

[Lyvione]

Yeah…i was a bit corrosive with that one ngl. Look, I was having arguments over on steam…and i was critical of all the outcry from all of these dudes that probably have not even played a single MP game.

These grown men were behaving like little children…dudes that dont even play the game anymore mind you. Not skirmish, not MP - none. It was complaining for the sake of complaining. Pure bandwagoning. All these bandwagon bros, who dont even play MP were jumping on the ship just to talk trash. Play your skirimishes with the AI. Why do you feel the need to talk about MP. Some of them were admitting that they dont play MP. Check out for yourself if u want.

The people with sense, who ACTUALLY PLAY CLASSIC MP are talking about the issue out there on the ESOC forums and are having discussions on “what next” instead of bi***ing here and on the steam page.
As for a solution, Im not a networking guy - so i cant help with a potential mod that adresses this, and fairly, even people who know networking, talking about that on the ESOC forum, say it will be way too hard to reverse-engineer the code and create a “community ESO”.
I myself, do textures, UI, code cards, make/code units, i do original music and stuff like that. If someone knowledgeble decides to try - i will be there trying to help however i can because aoe3 is a game that is very dear to me.

See, most of us that grew up playing this game are grown a** millenials in their mid 30s and pushing 40. I kinda held it there arguing with these people - these bandwagoners, and wanted to check out what people think about it on this forum. And yeah…i went a bit too harsh after going back and forth with those dudes for 2 hours + on steam and seeing some of the same stuff here. My bad…

Also while i was comparing this to the aoe2 classic chads like Fatslob who PLAY MP and chill out there on Voobly, I actually defended the classic MP playerbase. Cuz aoe3 is more modern, the graphics hold to this day, and that it is not OUR job to make a mod or a feature that enables P2P. And/Or it is not the guys from ESOC’s job to redirect the traffc to a potential aoe3 classic server.

Here i will share my last post i posted on steam about the classic aoe3 MP issue.

Regarding K&B - im not the original creator of the mod - it was a team that split around 2013 and later one of the dudes allowed me to add the civs i had in my mind, revamp some of the UI replacing it with DE icons, portraits and extend the mod. So yeah - it has the cards and the shipments but its set around the crusades period - it was heavily inspired by Kingdom Of Heaven. Baldwin IV, Salahadin that stuff.
Cheers friend!

EDIT: Rephrased and restructured the post to be more clear.

[LtSturm1]

Bandwagon
chad

Excuse me if this reads to me like trying to be contrarian just for the sake of it. You are ignoring the main issue, that is that companies are turning their products deliverately into lost media with no good reason: you can’t acess them via unofficial ways because “thats bad” but they will not allow you to purchase their game from them for some arbitrary reason. Heck, the fact that Legacy had twice the price of DE was kinda a red flag on their own; while developers like Id software basically gifted you a free copy of classic DOOM with DOOM Ethernal, this dudes won’t let you play the old version of their game just because.