Current Situation on Aoe4 and Aoe2

[HeavenlyChorus]

what a swamp

can all of these self claimed loyalists take a screenshot of https://www.twitch.tv/payments?tab=purchase-history ?
payment history tab, thanks

 

[Baron Icey Harkonnen]

what a swamp

can all of these self claimed loyalists take a screenshot of https://www.twitch.tv/payments?tab=purchase-history ?
payment history tab, thanks

May 29, 2015

VooblyOfficial

Channel Subscription - Tier 1

oh voobly. How I have missed you ;(

 

[Hunyadi_]

what a swamp

can all of these self claimed loyalists take a screenshot of https://www.twitch.tv/payments?tab=purchase-history ?
payment history tab, thanks

Sure, but I don't know what this is supposed to prove

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Spoiler

Date	Product Name	Product Description	Amount	Payment Method
26 Nov 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Nov 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
27 Oct 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Oct 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Oct 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
7 Oct 2017	DauT	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$2.50
27 Sept 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Sept 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Sept 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
31 Aug 2017	Hearttt_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
25 Aug 2017	Nicov_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
23 Aug 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Aug 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Aug 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
23 Jul 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99

 

[Sticky Ice Cream]

Spoiler

I have a gifted sub to Ornlu, if that's something. And a follow for IamChris because his chat is followers only.

 

[Baron Icey Harkonnen]

Spoiler

Date	Product Name	Product Description	Amount	Payment Method
26 Nov 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Nov 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
27 Oct 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Oct 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Oct 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
7 Oct 2017	DauT	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$2.50
27 Sept 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Sept 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Sept 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
31 Aug 2017	Hearttt_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
25 Aug 2017	Nicov_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
23 Aug 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
16 Aug 2017	TheViper	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
13 Aug 2017	slamjam_	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99
23 Jul 2017	MembTV	Channel Subscription - Tier 1	US$4.99

SHILL

 

[LowEloNobody]

To be fair smaller carrots just taste better than the large ones so it kind of makes sense to not purchase them for the supermarkets.

What if I told you that small carrots are just big carrots that have been cut down

Baby carrot - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[dooog]

My brother in law eats large carrots raw, dipping them in brown sugar. I'm not sure how I feel about this but I thought you all should know.

 

[lecracheursagacite]

What if I told you that small carrots are just big carrots that have been cut down

Baby carrot - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

He doesn't mean baby carrots, he just means full carrots that are on the thinner/shorter side.

 

[HelloWorld]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

AoE4 steam count falls below AoE2.. I guess happy news for AoE2 players eh? (Ik xbox game pass exists but still)

 

[Rayne]

Sure, but I don't know what this is supposed to prove

View attachment 196903

Like Twitch chat would say, -$204 KEKW.

 

[lecracheursagacite]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

AoE4 steam count falls below AoE2.. I guess happy news for AoE2 players eh? (Ik xbox game pass exists but still)

DE is also on GamePass remember.

 

[oozkan]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

AoE4 steam count falls below AoE2.. I guess happy news for AoE2 players eh? (Ik xbox game pass exists but still)

Cool another excuse for my list from that reddit comments:

Numbers are declining
- Hey it is normal, every game loses numbers after first week
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because they play on game pass
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because of KOTD, when it finishes people will return
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because people are buying from Microsoft store
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is fun for pro gamer, because of asymmetric civs
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it will be able to grow next couple of years with DLCs.
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey but aoe2 wasn't on game pass for most of its life (OF COURSE WRONG), meaning most people bought it first. (Compares AOE2 vs AOE4 numbers)
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey but AOE2s fanbase has been using steam for a very long time, meaning they likelihood that they're going to continue on the same platform is very high. (Continues to compare AOE2 vs AOE4 numbers)

 

[oozkan]

I guess discussions about pro scene is not relavent anymore, former AOE2 players got their *** kicked by SC2 players, except Viper, nobody made it to semis yet in first 3 tournaments, so far only thing AOE4 has upperhand compared to AOE2 is tournament prize allocation for upcoming months.

 

[amazing_knight]

Cool another excuse for my list from that reddit comments:

Numbers are declining
- Hey it is normal, every game loses numbers after first week
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because they play on game pass
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because of KOTD, when it finishes people will return
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is because people are buying from Microsoft store
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it is fun for pro gamer, because of asymmetric civs
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey it will be able to grow next couple of years with DLCs.
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey but aoe2 wasn't on game pass for most of its life (OF COURSE WRONG), meaning most people bought it first. (Compares AOE2 vs AOE4 numbers)
Numbers are declining another week
- Hey but AOE2s fanbase has been using steam for a very long time, meaning they likelihood that they're going to continue on the same platform is very high. (Continues to compare AOE2 vs AOE4 numbers)

- Hey but the game is too expensive right now. Numbers will improve when the price comes down to $0, or rather - if MS starts paying us $20 to play the game.

 

[kw1k000000]

For aoe4, as expected player numbers declined for another week. This week peek 22,876 vs last week 27,075

 

[kw1k000000]

I guess discussions about pro scene is not relavent anymore, former AOE2 players got their *** kicked by SC2 players, except Viper, nobody made it to semis yet in first 3 tournaments, so far only thing AOE4 has upperhand compared to AOE2 is tournament prize allocation for upcoming months.

In other words MS pumping money to artificially boost their own game and some streamers trying to gain audience quickly.

aoe4 has so much going for it,

* MS pumping money into the game
* streamers jumping on the train (mainly aoe2 and some from other games too)
* Big tournaments lined up for next 6 months (none for aoe2)
* a reddit community which is willing to go to any lengths to defend their spend of 60$ (now they are looking to flood r/aoe4 with memes to counter the complaints :D)

and yet player numbers keep declining

 

[Saeda]

For aoe4, as expected player numbers declined for another week. This week peek 22,876 vs last week 27,075

So continuing at the steady 20% decline each week, which has been the constant pretty much since week 1. That means ~18k in a week, and a drop below 10k in a month.

 

[kw1k000000]

So continuing at the steady 20% decline each week, which has been the constant pretty much since week 1. That means ~18k in a week, and a drop below 10k in a month.

During Chrirstmas/New Year all games go up a bit and the hard crash will come around January end

 

[z3us]

Guys, everyone's just waiting for the spring patch to come out. Once that's out the numbers will be up in the 100000s.

 

[Lokalo]

Yesterday was funny thing during tournament of aoe4, someone said that guy "abusing" a bug and someone asked which bug? And people said like 4 different bugs 11

 

[ltm]

I wonder what consequences it may have if AOE4 keeps dropping numbers like this. Will MS eventually focus more on AOE2 again? Try to salvage and keep AOE4 going? Give up on the genre altogether?

Would be interesting to have some insight on what is seen as a success for Microsoft and if the current state and trend of AOE4 is within their expectations.

I mean as someone with absolutely zero interest in the game it's kinda funny to see numbers dropping like that and AOE2 pros not doing as hot as they may have hoped, but still.

 

[HongeyKong]

Really want mbl to try out the aoe4 pro scouts meta.
"Oh I steal one deer, I steal it back, I steal one deer, I steal one back!"

 

Would be interesting to have some insight on what is seen as a success for Microsoft and if the current state and trend of AOE4 is within their expectations.

Even just conservative estimates on Steam are not looking that bad:

160k copies sold on steam estimate with only Standard edition sold: $9.6m+
500k copies sold on steam estimate with only Standard edition sold: $30m+
1M copies sold on steam estimate with only Standard edition sold: $60m+

That said, these are only taking the minimum estimates from Steamdb.info. It could be less, it could be more. But there are also copies sold on MS Store, playing time from Game Pass (that is valuable for them as well). And again: They managed to place a new game they made at around the same (or higher) player count as AoE2 after two decades. Which as a basis is not bad. It's too early though to judge, but it seems people try nevertheless - bit senseless imho.

You can see that lots of triple A games take 2 to 4 years with teams of 70 to 300 developers. That gives a range of 2,000 to 12,000 developer months. Typical fully loaded costs would be 10 to 15k per month per head. That gives a range of about 15 to 150 million USD.

Source: https://www.quora.com/For-the-average-AAA-game-what-is-the-average-cost-of-development-alone

Other sources say 100-150 million USD are AAA titles. So from that perspective it's not sure if they sold enough copies to even out development costs. It's a big question also for their future investment into the game, like developing the features they promised for the Spring patch. For me it would be interesting to see how far their investment goes on top of that Spring patch. But I guess they will finance that with the DLC releases. So my personal guess is that AoE4 is just fine.

 

[doacid]

I wonder what consequences it may have if AOE4 keeps dropping numbers like this.

Will MS eventually focus more on AOE2 again? Try to salvage and keep AOE4 going? Give up on the genre altogether?

Would be interesting to have some insight on what is seen as a success for Microsoft and if the current state and trend of AOE4 is within their expectations.

The way I see it If aoe4 had exploded in popularity it would have been great for aoe2. It would have helped it grow. Imagine a healthy 300k users playing aoe4 daily. That'd be great for every game in the franchise, aoe1, aoe3, mythology, and specially aoe2. So the current situation where aoe4 is crashing hard is just bad all around.

I'm seeing some people here who follow aoe4 daily being so happy that it keeps crashing. That is totally absurd in itself (wasting energy on something you hate) and let's be serious, in some cases done out of resentment because a beloved streamer is playing it lol. But with aoe4's demise potentially affecting aoe2 negatively... it makes it even more of a foolish attitude.

Regardless of aoe4 though, aoe2 can't die because basically there are tens of thousands of die hard fans. Even if Microsoft stopped pumping money into aoe2 tournaments the community would be taking over and it'd be done like it was in the past. Back when the big tournaments were 2k-10k instead of 20k-100k.

Now, all of the above doesn't affect me in the slightest. I admit this is very personal and you can't extrapolate it to other's enjoyment. But the fun I had watching tournaments 5 years ago wasn't any lesser than today, even if prize pools were five or ten times smaller.

The epicness of aoe2 comes from its unrivalled gameplay and the tight-knit community which financially supports streamers and competitive play for its own amusement. And I don't think that will change, specially nowadays with how big streaming has become. I enjoyed aoe2 five years ago, I enjoy it today and I'll enjoy it in five years. Along all that time all the things around the game have been and will be in a constant change, but the game's core and essence will still be there, and so will we.

Enjoy the ride.