Imagine this atrocious UI issues on a Competitive Level Game
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Don’t forget that for most of the time since this game released, units would simply disregard your orders when someone attacked them.
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CURRENTLY, THE FOLLOWING ARE RUINING THE GAME:
- KRONOS’ RUSH
- POSEIDON RUSH (CENTAUR + ATALANTA + CAVALRY RUSH)
- ORANOS RUSH (CALADRIA + MURMILLO HERO RUSH)
These strategies are completely horrible and only ruin the game, especially in team ranked matches. It is a completely unpleasant experience. That should be nerfed. Abusing a broken feature of the game to hinder the progress of the match at the start of the game only causes players to abandon the game.
At what time can civs approach your base? Asking to see what civ doesnt fit that Window.
Personally I can deal with the first 2 in most cases and win. The variety does make the game better not worse imho.
Oranos is really tough in some matchups though, but beatable.
Last Record Update as of 2025
And this is the Last three months Span since the release of Heavenly Spear DLC
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It stopped loosing players. Months ago. The topic was created months before that. The title is outdated. The whole topic is outdated.
This game is genuinely disappointing, and I have uninstalled it and removed it from my Steam library entirely. The developers seem unable to release content in a polished or balanced state, and when balance issues arise, they take far too long to address them. Instead of making quick, meaningful adjustments within weeks, major balance concerns are left unresolved for months, which makes the competitive experience frustrating and inconsistent.
Ranked mode also suffers from a very small player base. It is common to queue into the same players repeatedly throughout the day, which highlights how limited the active population has become. The game feels like it is slowly declining, and it is hard to stay invested when player numbers remain this low.
Another baffling design decision is allowing direct communication with opponents through chat, which often creates unnecessary friction. Many games such as World of Warcraft or Warcraft III handle communication and moderation far better, whereas this game combines rigid enforcement with unclear systems. It might be fine if you are a long-time RTS veteran, but you are never going to attract younger players like this. Even basic terminology such as “indefinite” and “permanent” is treated as the same without any clear timeframe or pathway forward.
I have not logged in since these issues escalated. Releasing Demeter in an extremely underpowered state only reinforced the impression that balance priorities are inconsistent, with certain factions or playstyles seemingly receiving more attention than others. At this point it feels less like Age of Mythology and more like “Age of Japan.” Ra has remained poorly balanced since release, and truly struggling gods are rarely given meaningful tools to compete.
There are also bugs that should not exist in a modern release. I personally experienced a minotaur clipping my villager into a temple, leaving it permanently stuck — something I do not even recall happening in the original game. Despite ongoing player feedback, it feels like the developers follow their own direction regardless of community concerns.
Ultimately, this game being under Microsoft has done little to inspire confidence. The direction they are taking seems more likely to push players away than retain them. That is fine — I will simply move on and support other games instead. If the plan is to continue selling DLC to a shrinking ~3k player base, then that decision speaks for itself.
Say all you want but how great the game is and look, the grahpics is great, the gameplay is fun. But a dwindling player base says it all frankly. There’s parts of this game is not able to do right after 1+ year since release. I think this game will die in my opinion. I hope it does and it looks like that way.
From the DLC alone from the 9th of December to now, they probably made around £150K in gross developer revenue, and that is already a generous estimate. If we assume roughly 8,000 to 10,000 players bought the DLC at around £25 each, that gives about £200K to £250K in total gross sales. After Steam takes its standard 30 percent platform cut, that leaves approximately £140K to £175K returning to the developer/publisher side. This estimate also assumes most buyers paid full Western pricing. If a portion of players purchased from lower regional pricing areas such as South America or other discounted regions, the real revenue number could be significantly lower.
Now compare that to studio scale. World’s Edge reportedly has roughly 50 employees, and Forgotten Empires roughly 60 developers, meaning around 100 to 110 people are connected to maintaining and producing Age of Empires content. Even if only a small sub-team worked on this specific DLC, development costs add up quickly. If we assume an average total employee cost (salary plus overhead) of roughly £5,000 per person per month, then even a team of 10 developers working for 6 months would cost about £300,000 in staffing alone. That means the DLC revenue by itself likely does not fully cover development costs unless the team was extremely small, work was very short-term, or costs were heavily subsidised by Microsoft.
This isn’t growth anymore, it’s maintenance mode. A tiny hardcore playerbase recycling the same content while casual players disappear and no new audience replaces them. Again this game has FAILED at revitalising RTS or introducing younger people to it.
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It is a little sad, but yes there is no growth happening for AoM Retold. I my self stopped playing it. The new expansion pass has nothing that interests me. Microsoft is pretty much on a war path with profits, so this could be soon the end for new content for AoM Retold. I have ideas what went wrong, but until they really stop the support, there is no need for me to talk about it. Maybe the community will pick it up afterwords.
Well they are keeping up with more DLC contents
You see the Aztec Pantheon “Obsidian Mirror” DLC is coming
To be fair I agree with a lot you have said, but the 3k count is only on steam, Microsoft store and console sales must be good to keep supporting the game.
However as a first time player of AOM retold it’s just complicated and I just find the game harder, it’s rare in a skirmish anyone gets to age 4 and by age 2/3 the battles are over and the new god is underpowered, I wasn’t very impressed trying her out in skirmish mode.
Luckily o used the Microsoft rewards scheme to buy the complete game thus far so hasn’t cost me anything
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I don’t think they will do anymore after this expansion pass, they had a premium edition and an expansion pass, unless they add to this pass what else are they going to call the next dlc? Expansion pass 2?
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Whether or not they do more after the Aztecs will depend entirely on how well it sells. Trying to interpret whether there are more or not based on the name of the expansion pass is pure tea leave reading nonsense.
Whether they’ll release anything else depends on the company’s plans. Sales are only a concern when things are going badly. The Dawn of War 3 case is exceptional.
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I think it’s a very reasonable way of thinking
From what I see they’re just trying to milk campaign/other singleplayer playerbase while the game’s relevant and then they’ll drop it. Multiplayer is clearly not a priority for them. And even for singleplayer ppl they’re releasing somewhat half-baked content now. I have started having this opinion since witnessing China DLC release, and Demeter release confirms it HARD.
I think playing AoMR multiplayer at this point = not respecting yourself, when there are better alternatives available.
As singleplayer its fine to play now and then.
It’s very sad, because there was tremendous potential for multiplayer growth, had this game received more love. But I guess higher ups are trying to cut costs at every single opportunity and thus, we get what we get.
And sadly I don’t think any complaints are getting heard. Nothing changes. The only way I see to voice my disappointment is to not buy this “expansion pack” unless there is a MAJOR improvement in content (especially everything multiplayer-related).
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I’m really sad that we’re not getting AoM at Wololo. It coulda been great.
Maybe they coulda used Lightning mode or something, since the idea of Wololo is to be a faster style of play.
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I agree that Retold multiplayer (including custom lobbies) received the least amount of love, and many QoL features are missing.
I haven’t bought the Expansion pass. I mean, given what happened to AoE2 (aka 3K DLC) and AoE3 last year, I simply lost faith in the devs team behind the franchise, and now I am much more hesitated to pre-order any new contents, before actually seeing them. For example, I look forward to the blood & bones DLC, but the lack of any pictures / demos discouraged me to buy the Expansion pass further. They should at least reveal one picture of it.
Kronos rush is literally such a non issue. I’ve had several opposing Kronos players who failed their rush and immedielty forfeited. Most Kronos players focus too much on massing myth units with no regard in countering the heros their myth units are weak too as well as their economy. Poesideon rush is annoying as sin, but then again there are a lot of things that counter calvery and his centaurs. Same can be said about Oranos as well. Simply disrupt their economy and make sure to target their Caldreas and Centaurs via ranged units or heros, that particulary counter them both.
I don’t think this game is quote on quote “dead”. The term itself is so overused and exagerated at best. No, I’d say the game is rather in a hibernative state, and whilst a small portion of the playerbase stick around for the multiplayer experience, your casual audiance usually puts down the game after they done everything they wanted and typically flock back when something new is added. Literally you can say this with any game or peice of media out there for that matter. Every game has its up and downs, and AoM Retold is no exception. There are hiccups that need attending too, but the game did its job well on whats its supposed to do. Aside from the most recent dlc with Demetar, all the other DLCs, as well as the game as a whole is listed as overwhelmgly positive on Steam.
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