Kasva considers quitting...

[LowEloNobody]

.. something

Could be a withdrawal from AoE4 or the franchise entirely. I know he was trying to go full-time last year but not sure if he is full-time now

https://twitter.com/kasvaoe/status/1513566045944131588

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Aoe4 probably , he switched to it for some reason

 

[DracKeN]

I think he was expecting AoE IV to take over and focused heavily on it. But unlike other streamers who had similar or bit less viewer numbers when they switched to IVs, Kasva went from like 150 viewers to 20 on average.

 

[Vossn]

Checks out...

 

[LowEloNobody]

I think he was expecting AoE IV to take over and focused heavily on it. But unlike other streamers who had similar or bit less viewer numbers when they switched to IVs, Kasva went from like 150 viewers to 20 on average.

I think that makes sense if he is trying to make a living and isn't breaking into cash-positions in tournaments.
My worry is that he just quits playing age all together and doesn't continue with Age2.

Kasva seemed like he was just on the cusp of breaking into the consistent top 16 positions before he switched to Age4

 

[LeoMontero]

i think he is talking about age4, dead game already

 

[akku]

i think he is talking about age4, dead game already

Two 100K+ tourneys. Viper pretty much shifted fully to aoe4, at least for the foreseeable future. Lierry (apparently) plans to as well.

Don't think it's dead game, will survive at least a couple of years if MS keeps pumping money into it

 

[T-West]

Don't think it's dead game, will survive at least a couple of years if MS keeps pumping money into it

It's not dead, just on life support.

 

[LowEloNobody]

It's not dead, just on life support.

I think that might be a tad bit harsh. It looks like it is stabilizing around ~10k average concurrent players, which isn't too shabby. Is it a massive hit? Not really. Is it bigger than AoE2? Definitely not. Does it have enough players to have an active community? I think so.

 

[HelloWorld]

Two 100K+ tourneys. Viper pretty much shifted fully to aoe4, at least for the foreseeable future. Lierry (apparently) plans to as well.

Don't think it's dead game, will survive at least a couple of years if MS keeps pumping money into it

Viper said he will come back to aoe2 full time after the golden league.

 

[akku]

Viper said he will come back to aoe2 full time after the golden league.

Well, I hope so!

It's not dead, just on life support.

Yep, pretty much the fundings keeping the aoe4 pro scene alive at the moment.

I think that might be a tad bit harsh. It looks like it is stabilizing around ~10k average concurrent players, which isn't too shabby. Is it a massive hit? Not really. Is it bigger than AoE2? Definitely not. Does it have enough players to have an active community? I think so.

Is it though?
I haven't looked at the stats myself, but isn't it around 6-7K average in the last 2 months (based on screenshots I've seen here)?

Yeah, I think people will keep playing it for sure. I think, once the fixes come, it will be good enough to have a stable playerbase.

But as far as pro scene is concerned, I don't think it's gonna last for long. Not entertaining to watch IMO, I tried to multiple times until Genesis.
It's not even just a aoe2 vs aoe4 thing, I watch RTS all over the place. I often casually watch WC3, AoM etc. I find them more entertaining tbh

 

[Spring_]

Devs killing all the ladders means no one can improve or play the settings they enjoy. Expect more exodus of top players. sad days

 

[Salawen]

aoe4 destroyed aoe2 very hard. because of aoe4 we have:

- no hidden cup
- no nac
- content creatures leaving aoe2 like viper, nili
- inactiv ladder
- hera switching to lol because of inactiv ladder
- fb using the momentum to buy viper and t90

 

[IYIyTh]

It's not dead, just on life support.

Just until the $ stops flowing.

 

[Spring_]

aoe4 destroyed aoe2 very hard. because of aoe4 we have:

- no hidden cup
- no nac
- content creatures leaving aoe2 like viper, nili
- inactiv ladder
- hera switching to lol because of inactiv ladder
- fb using the momentum to buy viper and t90

aoe4 is a decent game, the devs controlling ladders so harshly is what destroyed the player base. Whats left right now is the "viewer base" most the good players are leaving or trying new things.

 

[akku]

Generally agree, aoe4 hard stopped the strong and growing momentum that aoe2 had in the past 4 years.

But....

- fb using the momentum to buy viper and t90

Don't think that had anything to do with aoe4 11

- no hidden cup

His move to FB also played a factor IMO. He lost more than 90% of his viewers. So, Hidden Cup wouldn't get anywhere close to the viewership it got back in 2021 (60-70k peak), and that would kinda look bad

50-50 if you ask me, based on his interview with Masmora:
- low enthusiasm amongst pros (largely due to aoe4)
- move to Facebook

- inactiv ladder

Initially, yes. When everyone shifted to aoe4 and pros had no one to play with.

At this point, inactive ladder is just the pros own doing. Except 3-4 players, everyone in the top 20-30ish have pretty much fully returned to aoe2.
They just choose to play random TG lobbies, or just not coordinate to play in ladder.

If you ask me, the increasing shift to team games and lobbies will be a good thing in the long run.
IMO team games are more entertaining to watch than 1v1s.

If aoe2 ever recovers from the complete derailing of hype/momentum in the late 2021 and 2022, TGs will play a crucial role in growing the scene.

 

[oozkan]

I think that might be a tad bit harsh. It looks like it is stabilizing around ~10k average concurrent players, which isn't too shabby. Is it a massive hit? Not really. Is it bigger than AoE2? Definitely not. Does it have enough players to have an active community? I think so.

That's equal to dying. If they can't maintain a strong presence against AOE2, they will go backwards gradually. That's the problem with sequels, you have to beat previous one to survive, better tech, higher prices, more experience. If it was another franchise, I would agree with you.

Back to my fellow countryman, he probably switched due to similar reasons with Lidakor, he was getting close to the end rounds of big AOE2 tournament qualifiers, but hitting a wall there. Probably thought top 16 is well established, better to try chance in a familiar but not established pro scene. Same wall appeared on that side also, he was a bit unlucky though, as far as I remember he lost to the winner of $100K prizepool tournament in qualifiers.

 

[akku]

Devs killing all the ladders means no one can improve or play the settings they enjoy. Expect more exodus of top players. sad days

I don't think the ladder had anything to do with this particular case though

 

[NextLever]

I don't think the ladder had anything to do with this particular case though

Nor did the devs "kill" the ladder, it is utter nonsense.

 

[akku]

Nor did the devs "kill" the ladder, it is utter nonsense.

He's probably talking about ladder in aoe4. Don't have an idea about it, so don't know if it's true

 

[LeoMontero]

AoE4 is alive because the 2 100k tournaments.
take that off the table and the game die. its as simple as that. when N4C finished the player base and the viewers went down hard.
so nili drop more money into aoe4 tournaments or game die for pro scene, twitch, etc.
players base and viewer base are more or less good because the 125k tournament.

 

[jagsfan515]

Viper said he will come back to aoe2 full time after the golden league.

Honestly AOE4 just isn't that great at least it's not good enough to be better than AOE2 also AOE2 has nostalgia if Ms were smart they would chalk up AOE4 to the same fate as AOE3 and put the money back into the long time bread winner. I mean there's still alot of stuff they could do to Aoe2 lobby's and pathing.

 

[Tempires]

Honestly AOE4 just isn't that great at least it's not good enough to be better than AOE2 also AOE2 has nostalgia if Ms were smart they would chalk up AOE4 to the same fate as AOE3 and put the money back into the long time bread winner. I mean there's still alot of stuff they could do to Aoe2 lobby's and pathing.

You clearly haven't been following aoe3 at all since you don't know how many things they have added to game + along with 4 DLCs(They have already teased new upcoming civ) since release of DE.

 

[Umdeuter]

aoe4 destroyed aoe2 very hard. because of aoe4 we have:

- no hidden cup
- no nac
- content creatures leaving aoe2 like viper, nili
- inactiv ladder
- hera switching to lol because of inactiv ladder
- fb using the momentum to buy viper and t90

- Indians about to be erased from the game
- high stakes tournaments without Daut
- Viper's dynasty finished again by Mr Yo because he lost his ability to quickwall
- KOTD 4 not even going above 100k pricepool
- Cumans not special anymore, just a civ in the wrong game now
- Rubenstock losing a nomad-tournament to some random other finnish guy
- deathcounter banned from aoezone, so that the people can't even resist their oppressors
- haven't seen mbl in a while
- pathfinding still sucks

 

[SouFire]

About kasva he took a terrible decision, after a decade of playing the game he got competitive at the end and all of the sudden decided to switch to a new game, if it took 10 years yo reach that level, then clearly jumping to a new game was a very bad decision for his aoe career.

About aoe4, even with the patches during the week it has like <9k players at peak hours, it recovered like 1k or 2k players compared to previous month but the game is basically dead outside european time zone and all of that because it has had +200k usd injected in less than 2 months.

About viper well, take a look:

it took like 4 hours after his twit to get any like, the reactions are below his average from any previous live announcement, 3 months ago it was full with aoe2 fans suggesting to play aoe2, but now they don't even bother asking him to play aoe2 anymore, taking bad decisions affects everyone, i am pretty sure t90 must be regretting his switch to fb, no HC or any big event means less youtube views which means less money, less exposure, even if fb is covering his old twitch salary he has been losing big money on youtube, i mean lel content and laddering doesn't have the same views compared to big events.

I think they took really bad decisions thinking in the short term, all aoe2 content creators who left for aoe4 or fb have lost their big viewership, damaging the community and the game's perception, i am wondering if those viewers that lost their rock star will be gone forever or just switch to another game, i guess we will see it by the q4 of this year when fb contracts expires.