Delisting and shut down of Age of Empires 3

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On October 8, 2024, Microsoft Game Studios, the publisher of the Age of Empires (AoE) series, announced that AoE 3 would be delisted on October 30th, and included the shut down of all multiplayer services for the game. This angered fans of the game, as the multiplayer at the time was still experiencing matches running on said servers. This event was done in an attempt to force players to instead purchase the newer Definitive Edition.

Background

Age of Empires (AoE) is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game series developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. The 3rd game in the series was the franchise's first foray into 3D graphics and had a thriving modding community. The only content accessible for owners of the original game are now the campaign and skirmish.

Delisting and multiplayer shutdown

On October 8th, 2024, Microsoft announced the closure of purchases of Age of Empires 3 from storefronts, on October 30th, they additionally shut down the multiplayer services for the almost 20 year old game at the time. Rather than directly informing consumers who owned the original version of the game, they opted to leave the announcement on the page for the Definitive Edition first before informing owners of the original game.

From today, Age of Empires III (2007) will no longer be available for purchase. After many years of support, we will be retiring the title from sale. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will continue to be supported.

In addition, on October 30, 2024 at 10am PT multiplayer services for the game will cease to run. This is due to the technology no longer being supported. If you own the game, you will still be able to play campaign and skirmish content. Online multiplayer is the only area of the game that will no longer be available. Players can experience Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on Steam and Windows Store, as well as 4 DLC additions which expand the civilizations and campaigns on offer. A free trial of the game is available on Steam for players who’d like to try the game before purchasing too!

A big thank you to all of the Age of Empires III players around the world.

Within the news post, it directly advertised towards consumers to purchase the Definitive Edition.

Microsoft's Response

In an attempt to recover Microsoft's image, they only offered current owners of the original version a temporary discount, which was soon after deleted.

Consumer response

Consumers were upset at the announcement, with Steam user Shadow of Antaeres in the discuss section stating:

"Multiplayer services ending October 30"

Will you be giving at least partially our money back for cutting important bits of the game in October 30? No?

I thought so.

That is why "YARRR-games editions" are so popular - yes, no miltiplayer (usually), but no dependance on publishers, their infrastructure and goodwill(!!!) too.

In cases like this we need official technology for making our own servers for multiplayer games - NOT "games as services" and other cr** like that.

Among another Steam discussion post, users were upset at Microsoft for delisting the game. Some were complaining about the gameplay quality of the Definitive Edition being poorer than the original.

Implications

Due to the closure of multiplayer, users are unable to play matches on AoE 3 without the usage of Gameranger, however the platform has not seen updates in nearly a decade, so the 3rd-party service may experience an unexpected closure. Consumers who own weaker hardware also are incapable of running AoE 3 DE.