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Age of Empires Online now extinct following server shutdown
The servers for freemium real-time strategy game Age of Empires Online shut down this week. Published by Microsoft, the online RTS entered beta in May 2011 before its full launch that August for Games for Windows Live. Gas Powered Games took over the game's development from Robot Entertainment prior to that in February 2011. It arrived on Steam in March 2012, at which point its daily active users spiked by by more than three times. A since-deleted support article for the game in January tipped off a July 1 closure date of Games for Windows Live. Age of Empires Online was let down easy, as its closure was forecasted nearly one month ago. The developer reset the player-vs-player ranking ladder at the beginning of June and hosted a few events for the game, including a Capital City decoration contest and invitational tournament near the end of the month. The developer capped off its Age of Empires Online send-off with an "End of the World" event yesterday, in which it livestreamed the game's final hours of life. [Image: Gas Powered Games]
Why Age of Empires Online failed
Since the beginning of this year, Age of Empires Online has shifted into stagnation and decline -- and done so intentionally. So why did Microsoft Studios decide to all but abandon the future of this game? In short, the title launched with far too little content, a bad business model, and couldn't crank out the goods fast enough to retain an audience. This resulted in a sharp drop-off from 100,000 players to 15,000 in a few months. Executive Producer Kevin Perry criticized the game's launch at GDC Europe, pointing at its skimpy features (including only two civilizations at launch) and bad public perception: "You don't get a soft launch for a branded title. Players come there for your brand. You only get word-of-mouth once. Whenever we got new players, they always came in with the overhead, 'but I heard this game sucks.' That hill was extremely difficult to climb." Even after tinkering with the game's cost, adding in more content, and figuring out ways to allow players to spend more money, the company ultimately realized that the players were mostly demanding new content which couldn't be generated to make a profit. "The content itself was too expensive to create," Perry admitted. "We did do a lot of things right, but they weren't enough to actually save the game."
Age of Empires Online ceases content development
What you see right now in Age of Empires Online is what you'll get... forever. Microsoft Studios announced that it's ceasing any further development on the title effective immediately due to finances. The studio will release a "small amount of content" in the near future, but following that, the game's features and civilizations will be set in stone as it moves into a support phase. That doesn't mean the game's getting cancelled, however. The announcement emphatically states that Age of Empires Online will continue to operate as is, will have future community events, and it is not "dying." The move from development to support was explained as follows: "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. Age of Empires Online already has a very large amount of high-quality, hand-crafted entertainment, and adding more is no longer cost-effective."
Age of Empires Online dev diary is all about the goods
Using tongue-in-cheek stick puppets, the folks at Age of Empires Online have emerged to give us a quick overview of the gear system in a new dev diary. Yes, even empire-building titles rely on good ol' fashioned MMO gear to equip armies. Once attached to an army, gear changes the appearance and stats of your troops. The more rare the gear, the tougher they become. Gear can be found, purchased, and crafted as you may expect. You have to purchase the civilization with real-world money in order to be able to equip the very best items, however. And if you're curious about Age of Empires Online's pricing structure, ShackNews has the full skinny. Some of the purchases are merely cosmetic, although it looks like there's bad news for those looking to avoid a "pay to win" scenario: "Unfortunately, Microsoft's approach to monetising Age of Empires Online seems to be one of placing non-paying players at a significant disadvantage." Age of Empires Online is slated for an August 16th launch. You can watch the dev diary on gear for a chuckle or two after the jump!
Snag an Age of Empires Online beta key!
If you're an old school Age of Empires player, then you have fond memories of harvesting bushes for berries, scooting your peasants inside the town hall during an attack, and spreading your civilized society by the pointy end of your swords. Those good ol' memories are being made new in Gas Powered Games' Age of Empires Online, which is heading our way good and fast. Assuming that the thought of creating a civilization from scratch to dominate your enemies pleases your sensibilities, you can now grab a free beta key from Curse. Simply nab a key while they last, then head on over to the Age of Empires Online site to redeem it and download the beta client. We're looking forward to hearing how this MMORTS plays, so if you get in, make sure to give us your fair assessment!
Age of Empires Online posts first dev diary video
Cross an RTS game over to an MMO? Madness! Well, OK, maybe it's not madness at all, but this new video dev blog from the team behind Age of Empires Online is pretty crazy! In it, we're treated to an interesting look behind the scenes of this upcoming MMORTS title under production at Gas Powered Games. However, as we learn from CEO Chris Taylor, Producer Dex Manely, and Marketing Manager Justin Kirby, there's a lot of brainstorming and work that goes on when it comes to creating interesting video dev blogs for a game. With fun, stylized graphics, vividly colored environments, tons of action and a pedigree spanning several different popular titles, Age of Empires Online looks like it has a good start. For now, check out the video embedded behind the break, and if the game seems like your idea of fun, head over to the Age of Empires Online site to get signed up for a chance to beta test.
