AOE2 and AOM back, but no AOEO!!!!

[Lantea]

Now that you are also bringing back AOM, why is there no effort to bring back AOEO and the shutdown is still planned for July of this year?
Why is the development not continuing as it should? AOEO had great potential, but it was squandered by the people in charge, and the shutdown will greatly hurt the AOE brand.

Postpone the shutdown and put it in the hands of the Studio developing AOE2HD and AOM:EE so AOEO can live on and become what fans of the game knew all along it could be.

[Spacehamster]

I read on the forum that the AOEO dev team was disbanded so it isn't possible to change the game into a single player game. But if that is the true reason, then I find it hard to believe that the original AOM (2002) dev team is still here after 12 years, upgrading the original AOM to EE.
I really hope Microsoft decides to keep AOEO alive. The game is great.

[Garmonbozia81]

Escrito originalmente por Spacehamster:

I read on the forum that the AOEO dev team was disbanded so it isn't possible to change the game into a single player game. But if that is the true reason, then I find it hard to believe that the original AOM (2002) dev team is still here after 12 years, upgrading the original AOM to EE.
I really hope Microsoft decides to keep AOEO alive. The game is great.

Development for AoEO ended a while ago, and the developers are not available anymore to make the changes or to create new content. You can find more information, which was released before the shutdown announcement, here: http://ageofempiresonline.com/en/articles/blog-20130103
The developers working on AoE II HD and AOM EX are not the same as the original developers for these games or as the developers for AoEO. They were specifically assigned to work on those two games. As AOEO Trajan states in his blog on the end of development:

Why no more content? Because creating top-tier content, as we have been for the last year and a half, is very expensive—too expensive to maintain for long, as it turns out. We can no longer afford to keep creating it. AOEO already has a very large amount of high-quality, hand-crafted entertainment, and adding more is no longer cost-effective.

[Lantea]

@Garmonbozia81

Regarding Trajan's comments about cost effectiveness; the reason why it was not cost effective is because GPG changed to a free-to-play model and pretty much gave everything away for free by making it way too easy to earn empire points, so there was no longer any incentive for people to spend real money for content.
So at the end the reason why it because unsustainable was because of the poor decision making by GPG and Microsoft about how to make the original model of $20 per civ into a free-to-play model.

Same as AOE2HD and AOM EX was given to Skylabs so can AOEM if there was willingness to do so and the vision to make it into a profitable title. There is definitely potential to make profit with AOEO, you just need the right execusion and not give everything out for free.

Finally your cost argument is related to further development on AOEO, there is no reason you have to completely shut it down and rob people of the content they paid for prior to the free-to-play switch up when civs were $20 a pop.

[Garmonbozia81]

I do understand that you would like to see the development for AoEO to be picked up again. However, both the decision to end the production phase as well as the decision to shut the game down in July are final.
We hope that you understand the reasons that have been stated before and we hope to see you one of the other AoE communities in the future.

[leitgo65]

https://www.change.org/petitions/microsoft-microsoft-studios-please-continue-to-support-age-of-empires-online

[Pippo]

I'm one of the oldest players of Aoeo, I have been playing since early 2012 and I don't know anything about this shutdown, I had stopped playing since december 2013 due to an urgent travel to SA and Jordan and when I had returned my server (Abydos) was empty, I'm really disappointed.

[wowcoh56]

Escrito originalmente por Garmonbozia81:

Escrito originalmente por Spacehamster:

I read on the forum that the AOEO dev team was disbanded so it isn't possible to change the game into a single player game. But if that is the true reason, then I find it hard to believe that the original AOM (2002) dev team is still here after 12 years, upgrading the original AOM to EE.
I really hope Microsoft decides to keep AOEO alive. The game is great.

Development for AoEO ended a while ago, and the developers are not available anymore to make the changes or to create new content. You can find more information, which was released before the shutdown announcement, here: http://ageofempiresonline.com/en/articles/blog-20130103
The developers working on AoE II HD and AOM EX are not the same as the original developers for these games or as the developers for AoEO. They were specifically assigned to work on those two games. As AOEO Trajan states in his blog on the end of development:

Why no more content? Because creating top-tier content, as we have been for the last year and a half, is very expensive—too expensive to maintain for long, as it turns out. We can no longer afford to keep creating it. AOEO already has a very large amount of high-quality, hand-crafted entertainment, and adding more is no longer cost-effective.

[wowcoh56]

We don't want new content, just keep everything the way it is now just convert it to single player game, we will even pay for it.... I'll pay 40.00 to have this game to play skirmish and base defense, etc... have Microsoft do a altered version of it and charge us.... we don't care we just want the game to play via steam. This game as single player rts game would be right up there with COH2, there is no competition right now and no really good rts games coming out that I have seen.... pls get this game back up and running for us

[Turd on a stick]

Escrito originalmente por Garmonbozia81:

I
We hope that you understand the reasons that have been stated before and we hope to see you one of the other AoE communities in the future.

Of course we understand u gave us the middlefinger.

http://youtu.be/kArgQz1RKmk

[BlkTA]

Just remember, Microsoft loves PC ... rofl

[r3d33m3r]

aoe2 and aom are good games, aoeo is not, so good riddance :D

[Lantea]

Escrito originalmente por Aaryn GenD:

aoe2 and aom are good games, aoeo is not, so good riddance :D

Thats your opinion that not everyone shares. If you don't like it noone is asking you to play or support it.

[NEVrMIND]

please return or bring back AOEO because it is the best graphics mythological RTS game ever

[Omedru]

First it was extremely expensive, 20 euro's for one civ.. then it got too cheap! Me and a friend bought a pack with 2 civs and some extra modes for 14 euro's on Steam. They should've started out with something that.. but even then: the unpatched game sucked big time. Such a shame, this game got ruined thanks to all kinds of stupid decisions! Really loved the game after the alterations. I'm sure this game would've been a succes with some smarter business decisions, instead of that MS is acting like AoEo never even existed..

[Lantea]

Escrito originalmente por andrewpranger17:

First it was extremely expensive, 20 euro's for one civ.. then it got too cheap! Me and a friend bought a pack with 2 civs and some extra modes for 14 euro's on Steam. They should've started out with something that.. but even then: the unpatched game sucked big time. Such a shame, this game got ruined thanks to all kinds of stupid decisions! Really loved the game after the alterations. I'm sure this game would've been a succes with some smarter business decisions, instead of that MS is acting like AoEo never even existed..

+1

In other words, Microsoft screwed up, and now they are taking it out on all their AOEO customers many of whom have supported them from the beggining.
Not a good way to keep your customers and fans of the AOE series. The way they ended AOEO is the main reason why I refused to buy AOE2HD and will not be getting AOM:EX either.

I will be watching closely how they handle the GFWL shut down this summer.