If you're still actively playing Age of Empires Online, then do we have some bad news for you. According to Microsoft, there won't be anymore updates for the game in the foreseeable future.
The reason for this "abandonment" is quite simple; it's purely a cash-driven decision. In short, it's getting too expensive to create content for the F2P game and it outweighs the benefits in doing so.
In a blog post by executive producer Kevin "Trajan" Perry, he mentions, "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."
Perry adds, ""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."
While this is indeed sad news, the game itself will carry on with community challenges and customer support still active. However, patches and other bug fixes won't be as quick as players were used to.
Perry ends by saying that "this is a bittersweet announcement to make," and laments that he wishes they've been able to add everything they wanted; most notably, a Roman civilization.
Sad to hear this, but who knows, though? Maybe if the title gets a ton of support maybe Microsoft will backpedal on this announcement. Nonetheless, this goes to show that not every F2P game turns out to be successful.
Thanks, GamesIndustry
