Microsoft Studios Halts Development of Age of Empires Online
Age of Empires Online will no longer be getting new content.
Age of Empires: Online, the game that brings the classic strategy civilization-building series to the free-to-play format, will no longer be releasing new content.
Gas Powered Games and Microsoft Studios explained that their decision to halt active development was due to their financial situation. "Why no more content?" says the game's official blog. "Because 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. 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."
However, the announcement also makes it quite clear that this doesn't mean Age of Empires: Online is going away. For current players, nothing will change, as all existing content will remain. Gas Powered Games and Microsoft Studios will continue to support the game and host community events. However, "Fixing any remaining bugs and addressing balance issues will be slower and, frankly, more difficult for the team. Some may, in fact, be unfixable," states the blog post.
Though AoE: Online will remain for now, it's difficult to see the game being able to sustain itself for much longer. The life of a MMO, especially a free-to-play one, is heavily reliant on new content to re-energize veteran players and entice new players into playing. Hopefully, AoE: Online will see some better days.

There's a fine line between F2P and P2W...
Some games do it well, others, well, they don't last long.
I wonder what there next project is?
Saturday night spell check fail..."their" is what I meant.
Keep your extra content, the game has enough as is, but PLEASE fix the bugs. One shouldn't have to choose between terrible screen stutter and horrible mouse lag.
the line is this
if you can get anything in game realistically (as in you don't spend months on that one thing) through hard work, than it isnt pay to win.
if they allow you to buy a weapon instead of earning it, it still isn't pay to win. not everyone has time to play till level 50 or 100 (depending on the game) and than unlock the weapon, allowing more casual players to unlock weapons like that is great, especially if its planet side 2 style, where no gun is a upgrade, they are all just different flavors.
if you can only get certain camo packs or colors through buying them, again its not pay to win.
now, if you have to spend money to get the best guns, than you go pay to win
if you lock out item types from people who dont pay, its pay to win.
it gets annoying when i read about pay to win all the damn time and every time i read it its not a pay to win game its just cosmetic crap or a shortcut to better weapons.
this.
See video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnPcYRKI21Y&feature=plcp
Tried the past few days when the news hit the net. I can't remember the last time a game gave me such a hassle until actually playing it..
Download GFWL, try to install the game and fail because it downloads in C which didn't have enough space, waste time trying to make room and give up, make a symbolic link to another drive, finish install. Make Live ID, make xbox live account, try to get free key and fail because the game is somehow not available in my region (and I couldn't find a way to change the region on the xbox live account). After that, I changed my IP to another country with TOR hoping to activate the game that way. This presented me with a different xbox live account on the same live ID. Get key after being asked for billing info on a free game. Enter game, log in, surprise, the game logs in the first xbox live ID which couldn't activate...
After a long while of venting my rage, I made another Live ID and went through the retarded xbox live account and billing part. If only there was a light at the end of this sh*t tunnel, but the only thing that I found was a functional game with a horrible grind.
Good thing Age of Mythology is here to wash the filth.
camo packs give an advantage... making players harder to see... giving a serious advantage.
that's pay to win
I used to think AoM was good. Then I tried Warcraft 3. I was hooked. I tried AoM a few years later and it SUCKED! Warcraft 3 blew it out of the water. Obviously both are dated now so meh. AoE 1 was always my favorite, followed closely by AoE 2.
In other news: gonna install AoE Online today.
Warcraft 3 (for me) sucked in comparison to Age of Mythology. I spent MANY a night without sleep playing that before school.
Heck the community even made an expansion to it!
http://www.facebook.com/ageofempires2.forgottenempires?ref=ts&fref=ts