Age of Empires Online: Failed Franchise

[chitti r]

The AOE series has always been a favorite for my friends and me for years - we've played all of three to include all of their expansions. We were thrilled when he AOE Online was coming out - though to my dismay, I'm stunned at the financial model in place. I'm financially secure and I just can't justify the cost for the premium content. AOE Online would've been a day one purchase for me had it been a traditional game, the "free" aspects of this game are very misleading. I busted out laughing when I saw another thread on here stating there was a $100 six month bundle, unreal!

[ApplePowerPC]

The game is fun, but they want you to try it before you give up, hence the F2P. 100$ is very little, how much do you pay for rent a month? It’s really nothing. I seriously thought you were talking about a surgery cost or the price of opening a business, but 100? I could toss away that amount all day. Agreed, also, the cost for server, for data’s is actually a lot. Most companies barely keep up with their expenses.

[MacIntel]

Comparing the old and new games and pricing models are hard. They aren't really apples and apples. Each Civ is like an expansion with different quests and hours of playing. There was really only one campaign for each of the previous AOE games and expansions. They shared art, audio and other things. Each of these civs has unique campaigns. It's hard to compare because we have purchased old age games that were structurally much different than AOEO.

[Common]

All the other games had servers - you could play each other online at any time. This game is using an extremely dated graphics engine - no DX11 or Shader 5 optimizations - only four civs, limited development, to compare this to a major MMO is not comparing apples to apples. To compare the production cost of this game to something like Gears 3 which is $60 would be comical - it wouldn't even be close.

[desilva]

Here I just wish to say something about this. Its way beyond that - do you believe this game is worth what they are asking. Think of the hundreds upon hundreds of units that were in AOE III - cards, faction’s upgrades, mercenaries - it was incredible. Take a look at how limited each one of these civs is - it's unreal that someone would try to compare this game to AOE-III; they aren't even in the same league.

[RyanInt]

AOE III is its own game. It was made to be as it was. This game is being made in a totally different direction/way than that game. Graphic wise, it’s good enough for many computers bringing the game to more people, increasing chances for money. It’s going in an MMORTS direction and is taking the series into a WHOLE new direction and might possible be the beginning of a whole new series. Who knows, 10-20 years from now there could easily be a Age of Empires II and III versions of AOEO and each of them could be really great with players playing all three at different times.

[AZUL]

As stated the current people working on this game haven’t been in power even a year yet and they have nowhere near the amount of people that other MMORTS or RTS games had and they have in their short time changed a good amount of things in just PvP alone (Sparta Region for ranked pvp is just one of them). We aren’t even a minute past launch and you already think it’s dead or going wrong. Give it time and hope it goes well, I think it is the beginning of a whole new series for Age of Empires that in this day and age will thrive, prosper and grow.

[RockOn]

Gears 3 and many other games are developed, created and published with costs exceeding literally tens of millions of dollars and they sell for $60 that was my point. AOE Online had NOWHERE NEAR the development costs of these types of games yet they are trying to squeeze $100+ dollars from the average fan. I honestly believe even if you bought AOE Online with everything it would still pale in comparison to say AOE-III, Supreme Commander 1&2, the Total War series, Company of Heroes and even Warhammer Dawn of War when it comes to content and value.