Definitive editions coming to Steam

[edeholland]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/30/ ... uQyt5aV3v0

One of the worries of many community members is that the definitive editions will be exclusive to the Windows Store. It looks like this won't be the case.

From the article:

With that in mind, our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games.

In March, we announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come to PC later this year, launching on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Windows. We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II & III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice. We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future.


Read more at https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/30/ ... ojgX2u2.99

[Sargsyan]

Hope to see aoe3 de with improved maps and no cheaters

[Imperial Noob]

I am glad that it comes to steam, but it surely won't be a free upgrade for those who have The Complete Collection, right?
I am not buying the same game 3rd time.

In the end, while the new devs will make some unique QoL changes, EP will still > DE and still be free of charge, despite the professionalism of improvements.
It really sucks that they made no open, official contact with the community.

[EAGLEMUT]

Great news!

I am glad that it comes to steam, but it surely won't be a free upgrade for those who have The Complete Collection, right?
I am not buying the same game 3rd time.

Why did you buy the game twice? This will be the first time it's remastered.

[Imperial Noob]

I am glad that it comes to steam, but it surely won't be a free upgrade for those who have The Complete Collection, right?
I am not buying the same game 3rd time.

Why did you buy the game twice? This will be the first time it's remastered.

2005, 2006, 2008 a physical copy with 3 boxes and 7 CDs, and ten years later on Steam because the former are riduculously clumsy to store, install and de-install and the CDs have aged(!) anyway? Not to mention that I lost my Warchiefs CD and had to borrow it from @pecelot everytime

[EAGLEMUT]

You can blame MS for a lot of things, but buying literally the same game twice is your own choice...

[Imperial Noob]

You can blame MS for a lot of things, but buying literally the same game twice is your own choice...

Offering DE as anything more than an add-on / paid patch to the Complete Collection is hard to defend lol

[fightinfrenchman]

Not really, a lot of work probably is going into it

[Imperial Noob]

Not really, a lot of work probably is going into it

But that's how it went with COH! An older product was replaced (not even replaced, they left the old version as legacy content) for free by the New Steam Version. Such approach definitely boosted the sales of COH2, because it got more players back into the setting, to trust the company etc.
It would make sense to try and get Aoe3 running at full ESO population to build up hype for AoE4, and to do that there are only 2 ways:
1) upgrade and so merge
2) compatibility (somehow)

deleting most of the current population by cutting them off from the new players through the release of a new version is Machiavellan, but in a way that can backfire spectacularily. Most of the current players will likely stick to what they own and then there won't be much of an incentive for new players to get into the game either.

[fightinfrenchman]

There's plenty of hype for AoE 4 already and nobody really cares about AoE 3 when 2 is so much more popular lol

[MCJim]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/30/microsoft-approach-to-pc-gaming/?fbclid=IwAR3QfeYuVEqvfpo7y-XPnp3d-gMrGdbeNRjHeXQefIqTpw1mluQyt5aV3v0

One of the worries of many community members is that the definitive editions will be exclusive to the Windows Store. It looks like this won't be the case.

From the article:

With that in mind, our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games.

In March, we announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come to PC later this year, launching on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Windows. We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II & III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice. We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future.


Read more at https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/05/30/ ... ojgX2u2.99

That's great! Thanks for sharing :)

[Imperial Noob]

There's plenty of hype for AoE 4 already and nobody really cares about AoE 3 when 2 is so much more popular lol

Let's assume AoE3 has 10% the popularity, hype potential etc. of AoE2.
10% is a lot in business lol

Besides, hype is cumulative on the internet.

[fightinfrenchman]

It's very entitled to act as though you deserve a free upgrade. You paid for the complete collection and got it, there was no promise of updates

[pecelot]

there's no way it comes out for free for those who already have base AoE3 lol

[Imperial Noob]

It's very entitled to act as though you deserve a free upgrade. You paid for the complete collection and got it, there was no promise of updates

anything more than an add-on / paid patch to the Complete Collection is hard to defend

If they choose to demand getting paid the full price again for a smaller service, they might not get the fee worthy of what they actually add to the game at all.

[Dsy]

When?

[Dolphincup]

the problem is that people who don't currently play some aoe game probably don't & probably won't understand that the definitive editions actually add content and fix issues. believe it or not, a LOT of people bought aoe3 on steam on some sale and never played it. this actually plays against microsoft for the DE. if you bought the game and never played it, would you buy new DLC? probably not.

Angling the game as DLC w/ reduced price if you own the game would get everybody who already plays the game on board easily, but it'd bring in relatively few new players. Presenting DE as a new game with a full price would actually convey that there is a lot of new content... but nobody pays full price for games these days, especially remakes. what's fair depends on how much content actually end ups being added to the game, but the best marketing strategy is really not clear.

Personally, I'm willing to pay 60 USD for the game if it means the player base actually reboots, and the competitive scene is reborn. what I'm trying to say is that for me, I care more about successful marketing than I care about the price.

[Mitoe]

It really sucks that they made no open, official contact with the community.

Well it’s possible that they haven’t even started on AoE3:DE yet with AoE2:DE likely coming next. It’s also possible that they are in contact with certain members of the community as well, but it’s unlikely we’d hear anything about that because of NDAs and the like.

[Imperial Noob]

It really sucks that they made no open, official contact with the community.

Well it’s possible that they haven’t even started on AoE3:DE yet with AoE2:DE likely coming next. It’s also possible that they are in contact with certain members of the community as well, but it’s unlikely we’d hear anything about that because of NDAs and the like.

True about the possibility of them starting later, I guess. But unless there is going to be a Stasi-scale espionage within the upper echelons of players and within the ESOC Staff, I can't see them using the knowledge of our community to its fullest potential

[Dsy]

You cant really contact a whole community about changes. You pick some people who will decide the way of the patch.
Its something like here: If you saw there was plenty discussion on starting crates for example. Its so radical that Japan with the best crates age up 15 sec faster.
And still there is no changes about it. I guess its because too many people involved and they cant agree what civs deserve what starts. So they rather dont even change anything.
So if a nobrainer changes cant pass then i think its better if there is a leader who can make through changes much more easily.

[Imperial Noob]

Yes, they might think that picking, say... 2 leaders is enough.
But then I can imagine a Relic employee completely confused by polar opposite messages from Garja and Diarouga
Or should the leader be GS? Or Ryan? Or zoom? or Mitoe?
"Poor Microsoft"

Maybe they will take a third option, and just ask Eaglemut about all things in life. To an outisde viewer sometimes he would seem to be responsible for everything.

And if they need mathematical "proof" to show to some supervisor why did they pick someone, they can also choose according to post count and place our collective fate in the hands of a ninja, who was always active in balance threads anyway.

[Mosx]

new aoe3 de?this mean new ladder?new graph prob,balance civ ,maybe new civ,new deck ect why u shouldnt pay 60 usd for this

[princeofcarthage]

60 USD? No thanks I will pass, also just so you know Bethesda released Special edition of Elder scrolls 5 to whoever owned gold/complete edition of older ES5 to everyone on steam, which is more or less DE of ES5

[Goodspeed]

Not really, a lot of work probably is going into it

But that's how it went with COH! An older product was replaced (not even replaced, they left the old version as legacy content) for free by the New Steam Version. Such approach definitely boosted the sales of COH2, because it got more players back into the setting, to trust the company etc.
It would make sense to try and get Aoe3 running at full ESO population to build up hype for AoE4, and to do that there are only 2 ways:
1) upgrade and so merge
2) compatibility (somehow)

deleting most of the current population by cutting them off from the new players through the release of a new version is Machiavellan, but in a way that can backfire spectacularily. Most of the current players will likely stick to what they own and then there won't be much of an incentive for new players to get into the game either.

That is exactly what they did with AoE2:HD though, and a lot of people bought that game even though it was a step back from the user patch in many ways. Active players immediately had to write off HD because it was much more laggy than the user patch, and hilariously (given the name of the game) the HD support had already been in the user patch for years.

I guess we can hope they learned from it, but I worry that their bottom line didn't actually show that HD was a failure. By their metrics, it wasn't.
They did end up adding civs eventually, to be fair.

[pecelot]

Looking at the service AoE1:DE was provided with, it's not looking too optimistic
Though one thing for sure is that Gabe sooner or later will grace us with a cheeky sale