You didn’t. You took what I said and changed the words in it, and thus, the meaning. You attributed to me something I didn’t actually say. You made something up that was easier for you to mock. Do I need to go on?
A game doesn’t have to be worse-received than DoW III to be criticised. A game could be perfect and still be criticised. I’m not opposing the existence of criticism. I’m counterpointing specific criticism that relies on bad faith comparisons and a lack of consistency with regards to other games.
Maybe you should spend less of your time being obtuse and sarcastic to folks, that way they might actually see the posts that back that up. Because I don’t see them. I just see you misquoting people (not just me) and laughing at them.
The numbers haven’t “tanked” (see: rest of the post). The game has bugs, and people want them fixed. Every game has bugs. AoE II: Definitive has a bunch outstanding even now.
(and you can consider the game unfinished, maybe it is to you. That’s a threshold that will differ for everyone, I respect that opinions are gonna differ)
But no, that’s not what I mean. I mean “the game isn’t going to be popular”. The game’s popular. I mean “the user reviews are going to be bad”. The user reviews aren’t bad. We go further and further bad, and a vocal minority were very insistent from the very first time they saw the game that it would be bad, and that a majority would agree with them.
That didn’t happen. None of that happened.
Civ VI is one of my favourite games. It’s also not an RTS. Civ V has lower, but equally-strong numbers for a game of its age. Civ IV probably as well, though that’s harder to tell as I think non-Steam copies still work.
Civ VI did great, and I loved the job the developers did with it. Turns out I like popular games too, what a shocker. I just like games man, I don’t know what to tell you. Sometimes I like unpopular ones. It happens, just like with movies and music.
And? You should still consider all sources for the game’s activity. Or you should focus on the PC for both. It’s 2021, it’s not 2004 where everyone has dial-up Internet. Halo has been on the PC for years. A game with Infinite’s retention should - if you’re being unbiased - mirror your concerns and claims of Age IV tanking. But here you are, trying to find excuses.
And here’s the funniest thing. You didn’t have to. You could’ve just agreed Infinite had worrying numbers and moved on. But you didn’t, because you’re too invested in the belief that Age IV is tanking and that a similar % retention loss must mean “bad”. So you’re trying to explain away Infinite instead of recognising that maybe your point wasn’t as strong as you thought it was.
Games aren’t just “console” or “PC” anymore. You’re relying on dated comparisons, and then telling me I’m getting them wrong. Games are multiplatform now, often first and foremost. Exclusives are getting increasingly negative press at times. Cross-play is becoming more common.
You’re consistently missing the point that this applies to all new games. Feel free to worry about it if you care about Age IV (which is . . . not the impression I get, but I know others do), but you’re comparing it to a remastered version of a 20 year old game with an established community and competitive scene. You’re not going to see the same drop-off with Definitive because it literally inherited the community.
We’re talking about activity. If 20% of players didn’t pass the first region in Hades (which you clear in the first playthrough of the game), and 40% didn’t get through the third . . . that’s a lot of players dropping off. That’s the line you’re mocking r.e. Age IV going downwards - for another game. Because it’s natural. Because it happens to every new game (like I already pointed out).
Weird, more strawmen. It’s almost like you don’t have an argument if you don’t mischaracterise mine 
I haven’t tried to argue DoW III was doing good in a long time. I wanted it to do well. I supported the developers trying to satisfy the playerbase. But it didn’t work out. You’d know this, had you bothered to actually read my post properly 