Xbox Live multiplayer question

Age of Empires: DE I - Discussion
1

I was reading that AOE DE will be using Xbox lives platform for multiplayer and I have a few questions on this.

First, Xbox live is a paid platform for multiplayer play. Does this mean that to play AOE DE you will have to have an active gold membership? If so then aren’t non membership holders being alienated because of the additional monthly fee?(Note: I am not familiar with using multiplayer play through pc).

Second, and this is probably beyond what can be answered here. Will Voobly (or other 3rd party sites) be able to host a server for AOE DE?

and lastly, will matchmaking have an automated match making process such as AOE 3 or HD?

2
  1. Xbox LIVE features on Windows 10 do not require an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription.
  2. The game requires Xbox LIVE servers for online multiplayer. LAN support is currently unknown.
  3. The game will have multiplayer lobbies like AoE III, AoM:EE and AoE II:HD. Automated matchmaking is currently unknown.

We may know more about the multiplayer features of AoE:DE after the event at Gamescom in about 4 weeks.