Welcome to the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Beta Streaming Event!
Greetings Age Insiders!
We hope you are as excited for the upcoming release of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition as we are! To celebrate, we are relaxing the NDA restrictions and inviting you to share your excitement about the game and its beta through streaming, videos, social media, memes - and so on! Not only are participants getting an exclusive preview of the game, but you can brag about it to all your friends and family! Now, let’s upgrade those Trade Routes and get the HYPE-train moving! 
The Beta Streaming Event will run from October 8th until October 14th. Emails with Steam keys will be sent out at the start of the event, and we’ll update this post to confirm when they have all been sent.
UPDATE: all invitation emails have been sent out. Happy gaming!
UPDATE: We hope you’ve enjoyed the Streaming Event for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition! The beta has now come to a close. Thank you to everyone for your wonderful feedback! Uninstall directions can be found here and you can begin pre-loading the game for tomorrow’s release (October 15th)! Happy gaming!
Some of the community’s favorite streamers will also be joining the event with content throughout the week - see more details over on the blog!
What is Available in the Beta
- Multiplayer and Skirmish game modes are fully unlocked! You can play solo or with your friends!
- Play as any of the 14 civilizations, including the new Inca and Swedes!
- Campaign Act I - Blood is available for play!
- The first two Art of War missions Early Economy and Treasures are available to preview!
Things to Keep in Mind
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The official forum for this beta is the public Age of Empires III: DE forum, and support works just like it will for post-launch
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The official Age of Empires Discord can be used for troubleshooting and matchmaking.
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This beta is utilizing a beta product in Steam separate from the retail version, as such:
- Campaign and the Art of War progress will not transfer to the retail version upon release.
- The same is true for Saved and Recorded games, decks built in the Deckbuilder, and any customization to the Home City, Hotkeys, Settings, etc.
- If you pre-order the game, you may see both the pre-order and the beta in your Steam library. Please make sure you are using your Branch Password on the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Beta product, and launching from that product as well.
- More information about pre-orders, including discounts, can be found HERE
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While bugs are not a focus of this beta, we appreciate any bugs that you are able to report to the Report a Bug subforum.
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The beta will end on October 14th @ 10am PDT (5pm GMT) but the forums will continue on to support the retail version of the game after its release.
- Please see THIS POST for directions on uninstalling the beta as well as further uninstall advice from the community.
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Participants in this beta, as well as our previous beta sessions, have been granted a special forum badge to honor and celebrate your involvement
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You may see certain streamers and members of the press sharing content not available as part of the Streaming Event, this is because they have access to a separate build. Feel free to check them out to see even more of the game!
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For this event, we have relaxed the Guidelines & NDA to allow participants to share and discuss their experiences, stream and upload videos of the beta, show-off the game to friends, post screenshots, hype on social media, etc. Other aspects of the Guidelines and NDA will still apply, such as the Microsoft Services Agreement and its Code of Conduct when interacting with other players online.
Thank you…
Finally, thank you for participating in the beta and have fun! This has been one for the ages! We could not have worked towards making the Definitive Edition the best version of Age of Empires III that it could be without the support and dedication of fans like you! Thank you.
