It is a genuinely entertaining and well made game, but Microsoft apparently does not feel it makes enough profit. Therefore, on July 1st Age of Empires Online is being terminated.
It is a sad end to this editon of the Age of Empires franchise. While previous editions from over a decage ago are still getting upgrades and modernized (i.e Age of Empires 2 and 3), Age of Empires Online embraced the free-to-play, on-line only business model. Without a sufficient stream of stable income to support its servers, the game carried too much overhead to justify continued support.
For gamers, this is the big risk in supporting online-only games. Unlike a single-player game, an online version incurs constant overhead for its developer. Every additional player adds to the overhead and bandwidth costs, yet each player may not necessarily make any substantial in-game purchases.
I wish Age of Empires Online could have at least been ported to a non-online platform before being euthanized. It was an enjoyable and more lighthearted take on the traditional empire-building genre.
RIP Age of Empires Online
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It is a sad end to this editon of the Age of Empires franchise. While previous editions from over a decage ago are still getting upgrades and modernized (i.e Age of Empires 2 and 3), Age of Empires Online embraced the free-to-play, on-line only business model. Without a sufficient stream of stable income to support its servers, the game carried too much overhead to justify continued support.
For gamers, this is the big risk in supporting online-only games. Unlike a single-player game, an online version incurs constant overhead for its developer. Every additional player adds to the overhead and bandwidth costs, yet each player may not necessarily make any substantial in-game purchases.
I wish Age of Empires Online could have at least been ported to a non-online platform before being euthanized. It was an enjoyable and more lighthearted take on the traditional empire-building genre.
RIP Age of Empires Online
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