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Age of Empires Online release date announced

Published on 1st June 2011 by Joe Martin

Microsoft has announced a release date and retail pack for free strategy game, Age of Empires Online.

Microsoft Game Studios has announced an official release date and retail package for Gas Powered Games' free-to-play interpretation of PC strategy classic, Age of Empires.

The new title, Age of Empires Online, will launch on 16th August, 2011.

Age of Empires Online is primarily a free-to-play game, with players promised an average of 40 hours play before they need to start buying in-game items and downloadable content. A retail package has been announced however, which will cost $19.99 USD and include the following content:

The Premium Greek Civilisation, containing Rare and Epic items, new Advisors, the Player vs. Player Arena and more
Windy's Wild Widgets Store to give your civilization an edge with the ability to buy and sell special items
Limited-edition poster and Advisor cards

Microsoft is also planning a lot of further in-game DLC, the first of which will offer free account holders access to the extras in the retail edition for the same price.

Microsoft will add new civilizations to Age of Empires Online too, with a $19.99 USD price point already set down. Booster packs containing new storylines and game modes will also be available, for $9.99 USD.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

10 Comments

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adam_bagpuss 1st June 2011, 11:15

hmmm sounds basically like we are making a game in stages 1st one is free additional stuff making the game complete will cost X. After it becomes a full game we hope you wont have realized it cost you $100 instead of the $40 it should have

Xir 1st June 2011, 11:18

Hmmm, why not? AoE is pretty well balanced and wouldn't new gameplay.
At the same time it could do with a slight graphical refresh and stable connections...

kaiser 1st June 2011, 11:47

I'm hoping that they go the same route as Riot did with League of Legends; there is nothing that you can't earn with the in-game currency (even if it takes a million years), but its possible to buy credits too if you feel like it.

I doubt they will though and it'll suffer the same fate as Battleforge.. great game, but nobody could afford to play it. If an average of a £40 rrp for contemporary games wasn't enough..

Denis_iii 1st June 2011, 13:50

I've not even gotten round to use my beta key yet! Looks sweet, must make a point of trying it soon.

Glix 1st June 2011, 15:08

Yay Microsoft will set what they think is good value for money in their games...

So they seem to be completely cutting out all resellers/competition so they can charge whatever price they want?

Won't bother touching this, since it's bad enough that Blizz think it's ok to charge for mounts etc...

Gone are the days dev's used to spend as much time as possible stuffing their games with decent content and hours gameplay.

Now we get: here is your new gun/model/race/skin. Same as the default skin just recoloured and because there are no SDKs we can charge for it muwhahhahahaha.

balatro2005 1st June 2011, 15:36

Im a big fan of age of empires been so long since I have played. Think ill give it ago :-)

SaNdCrAwLeR 1st June 2011, 16:01

people...
don't judge the game nor the payment method without trying it...
all the civs are ballanced, you're basically only paying for "visual" changes, sure there are some different units in the different civs, but they're all ballanced out. (these civs get their own campaigns tho, so you're basically extending SP life of the title)
and yes, been in it since the closed beta...
they're pratically giving away a full-fledged campaign for free.

I repeat...
do try the game prior to judging it, if you're an AoE fan, you'll be very pleased with what you're getting for FREE

thehippoz 1st June 2011, 16:11

been in the beta.. they just patched it last night followed by a lot of moaning- it's pretty well balanced.. think have a couple of shots when I was leveling up

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2599/spartan2011042700080265.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2919/spartan2011052201593865.jpg

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/4803/spartan2011052315433516.jpg

it reminds me of age of kings.. my guys are suited out in epic gear, was easy to get before the update but now.. noone has spotted epic anything

think they've made it very rare.. example between epic and crafted gear.. 12-15% max picking berries.. titan construction shovel 19% on everything

so guys with epics will have an advantage like double hp buildings, ect.. it's still skill based though.. like a new player to aoe will still get a cleaned clock with epics against someone who knows how to manage their economy, rush, just multitask xD

the thing I don't like is you can use consumables in pvp

adam_bagpuss 1st June 2011, 16:40

graphic style is like torchlight

looks nice but i still dont like payment methods

delriogw 1st June 2011, 16:44

nice screens hippoz, i'll be happy if it IS closer to 2 than 3, i hated 3

looks quite cartoony, but not in a bad way.

am definitely going to be checking this out, AoE was my first foray into RTS games, and i still go back to it now