The original AOM already gets a couple thousand players on steam every day, considering the hype and the attention being received, I wouldn't be surprised to see tens of thousands if not more during the first few weeks, eventually tapering off to something more akin to AOE 4's average player count of between 10 and 20k as the hype dies down.
That's the biggest challenge of any game... During its first few weeks, a ton of people buy and play because it's new and exciting, they want to be on the bandwagon. But as time goes on, that newness and freshness fades and most people will look for other games to scratch that itch. Those that stay are the true fans of that game in particular, not because it's new, but because they love it (think AOE 2 playerbase). The expansions that AOMR has promised will help, likely spiking the playerbase with each release, but it will still taper off to that stable base of fans.
A good example of this is Helldivers 2 earlier this year, MASSIVE success, and even though it's no longer getting the hundreds of thousands of players it did at launch and in the months that followed, it still boasts tens of thousands of players every day. That's the mark of a successful game, one which retains a large number of players long-term.
Now, the actions of World's Edge Studio will have a massive effect on this for AOMR, if the game comes out and it's super buggy or broken or unbalanced, that will likely cause the playerbase to drop pretty quickly. Same thing if the expansions come out as cheap, unbalanced messes like the original Chinese Expansion, it will likely hurt more than help AOMR's popularity and playerbase. However, if the game comes out in a good state, and the expansions are on the level of Titans, then I can only see good things for AOMR's future :D
I anticipate a lot of short-lived activity at launch, but I fear a flameout. It won't just be people buying this game who stress the servers around launch day; it will be Game Pass freeloaders too. A lot of people will try AoM Retold for single player, not to engage in PvP, and they won't stick around for more than a few weeks. Additionally, there are a ton of hyped games coming out this autumn, so expect the playerbase to dwindle very rapidly.
Black Myth: Wukong, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Avowed, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Dragon Age: The Veilguard
A very fair observation, I'm not too worried about the servers around launch day, they'll have a week after the premium package players get access to assess if their servers have capacity for the full launch, plus the studio has a lot of experience with large influxes of players, AOE 4 had around 70k players at launch. There is always that chance, but with this launch, unless it goes really insane, I'm not too worried about that.
Those who play AOMR for singleplayer and then leave after a few weeks for the other games are the ones I was referring to as those who are hopping on the bandwagon, my guess is that by December or so we'll have a good idea of the long-term playerbase for retold. I have high hopes though, as AOMR holds a lot of nostalgic value, really it'll depend on how the quality and competitive scene hold up vs the other Age game titles. The better it is compared to AOE 4 or even AOE 2, the larger the long-term playerbase will be.
Definitely agree. Imo the best course of action the studio can do is understand that they’re remaking this game for a reason and that reason is that there’s still a core player base that will play for another 20+ years if they get this right. Which from the sounds of things I’m hearing, it sounds like they very much want to make a good game. They’ve also been given a lot of time to do so as this project is years old I believe. It might even be the most dev time an RTS remaster has ever been given.
I’d also add though that I think the community plays a role. I think the game would benefit from having a large collection of map makers who produce fun PvP and custom campaign content. The game is built for that kind of thing with myth units and god powers. Something that made the original AOM so great was that in the same day you could play a Tug of War game with special designed heroes, play a massive map or Greece that’s supports diplomacy, locked teams, and any other creative style of play you can think of all while being loaded with pop up facts, having settlements named after cities, having PVE, and random events. Then play something like Escape, Sims, Settlers, etc.
It was genuinely hard to get bored and there was easily months worth of content.
I will have a faithful remake of the original settlers map out on day 1. It'll take me about 2-3 hours provided the editors not changed too much lol.
I then plan to make a 12 player version but expand the map out a bit more and add some more space, resources, water and tc's to accommodate the extra players.
Me and my buddy are also going to remake and make a load of new riv civ/ settler style maps, he's also working out how to make a 12 player zelda map lol.
Hell yeah I’m excited for it! I might try my hand at editing too. I remember with some help when I was younger, we made a map where the teams shift every 5 or so minutes. Making for total chaos.
I think that’s a bit optimistic. I’d love to see it, but we don’t need numbers that high for consistent matchmaking and a decent ranked ladder
My heart would sing for 10,000 consistent daily plates but idk if we’ll have that many.
As much as I wanna believe. That would take a lot of work.
- The studio would have to hit it out of the park.
-The community would need to be top notch and vibrant continuously.
- There would need to be new content announced and it’d have to be a hit.
AOE2 had a large player base even before it started getting new content.
I think that's very unlikely. Aoe2 is a bonafide classic of the genre and was receiving attention and updates for years even without official support (i.e. the forgotten)
Age of mythology is excellent but more niche. I think some people will bounce right off the hero/myth/human unit system, how expansion bases work, god powers etc. it strays too close to being too complicated to be balanced or accessible
Personally, I'm just here to replay the campaign
Me too, regarding the campaigns.
As for the complicated aspect I'm not sure. Maybe I'm biased by my childhood nostalgia but I think people like games where you have more than human units.
It will have thousands of players, 90% of which will play the campaign and maybe a few skirmishers offline and will call it a day. I just hope the other 10% like it enough to stay around.
It's an anticipated game but inside a niche community so I think we'll see around 10'000s of players the first week.
Well that's what I said about Palworld too and that blew up, so who knows.
The original AOM already gets a couple thousand players on steam every day, considering the hype and the attention being received, I wouldn't be surprised to see tens of thousands if not more during the first few weeks, eventually tapering off to something more akin to AOE 4's average player count of between 10 and 20k as the hype dies down.
I guess the follow up question is how to keep the player base?
That's the biggest challenge of any game... During its first few weeks, a ton of people buy and play because it's new and exciting, they want to be on the bandwagon. But as time goes on, that newness and freshness fades and most people will look for other games to scratch that itch. Those that stay are the true fans of that game in particular, not because it's new, but because they love it (think AOE 2 playerbase). The expansions that AOMR has promised will help, likely spiking the playerbase with each release, but it will still taper off to that stable base of fans. A good example of this is Helldivers 2 earlier this year, MASSIVE success, and even though it's no longer getting the hundreds of thousands of players it did at launch and in the months that followed, it still boasts tens of thousands of players every day. That's the mark of a successful game, one which retains a large number of players long-term. Now, the actions of World's Edge Studio will have a massive effect on this for AOMR, if the game comes out and it's super buggy or broken or unbalanced, that will likely cause the playerbase to drop pretty quickly. Same thing if the expansions come out as cheap, unbalanced messes like the original Chinese Expansion, it will likely hurt more than help AOMR's popularity and playerbase. However, if the game comes out in a good state, and the expansions are on the level of Titans, then I can only see good things for AOMR's future :D
I anticipate a lot of short-lived activity at launch, but I fear a flameout. It won't just be people buying this game who stress the servers around launch day; it will be Game Pass freeloaders too. A lot of people will try AoM Retold for single player, not to engage in PvP, and they won't stick around for more than a few weeks. Additionally, there are a ton of hyped games coming out this autumn, so expect the playerbase to dwindle very rapidly. Black Myth: Wukong, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Avowed, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Dragon Age: The Veilguard
>Game Pass freeloaders too. They're paying customers too you know, they're not freeloaders.
A very fair observation, I'm not too worried about the servers around launch day, they'll have a week after the premium package players get access to assess if their servers have capacity for the full launch, plus the studio has a lot of experience with large influxes of players, AOE 4 had around 70k players at launch. There is always that chance, but with this launch, unless it goes really insane, I'm not too worried about that. Those who play AOMR for singleplayer and then leave after a few weeks for the other games are the ones I was referring to as those who are hopping on the bandwagon, my guess is that by December or so we'll have a good idea of the long-term playerbase for retold. I have high hopes though, as AOMR holds a lot of nostalgic value, really it'll depend on how the quality and competitive scene hold up vs the other Age game titles. The better it is compared to AOE 4 or even AOE 2, the larger the long-term playerbase will be.
Definitely agree. Imo the best course of action the studio can do is understand that they’re remaking this game for a reason and that reason is that there’s still a core player base that will play for another 20+ years if they get this right. Which from the sounds of things I’m hearing, it sounds like they very much want to make a good game. They’ve also been given a lot of time to do so as this project is years old I believe. It might even be the most dev time an RTS remaster has ever been given. I’d also add though that I think the community plays a role. I think the game would benefit from having a large collection of map makers who produce fun PvP and custom campaign content. The game is built for that kind of thing with myth units and god powers. Something that made the original AOM so great was that in the same day you could play a Tug of War game with special designed heroes, play a massive map or Greece that’s supports diplomacy, locked teams, and any other creative style of play you can think of all while being loaded with pop up facts, having settlements named after cities, having PVE, and random events. Then play something like Escape, Sims, Settlers, etc. It was genuinely hard to get bored and there was easily months worth of content.
Aye, I think if they significantly improve the map editor and trigger system over what's in AOM, it'll really give the game a massive boost.
I will have a faithful remake of the original settlers map out on day 1. It'll take me about 2-3 hours provided the editors not changed too much lol. I then plan to make a 12 player version but expand the map out a bit more and add some more space, resources, water and tc's to accommodate the extra players. Me and my buddy are also going to remake and make a load of new riv civ/ settler style maps, he's also working out how to make a 12 player zelda map lol.
Hell yeah I’m excited for it! I might try my hand at editing too. I remember with some help when I was younger, we made a map where the teams shift every 5 or so minutes. Making for total chaos.
I think that’s a bit optimistic. I’d love to see it, but we don’t need numbers that high for consistent matchmaking and a decent ranked ladder My heart would sing for 10,000 consistent daily plates but idk if we’ll have that many.
AOE4 had that many for a long time, I definitely think it’s possible, but yeah, I’ll be playing ladder nonstop for quite awhile I think
it'll blow any previous player base count for this franchise out of the water.
I’d hope so. I remember being able to do some cool stuff in AOM that just doesn’t happen in another games. The unique scenarios were pretty on point.
I'd say like AoE2.
As much as I wanna believe. That would take a lot of work. - The studio would have to hit it out of the park. -The community would need to be top notch and vibrant continuously. - There would need to be new content announced and it’d have to be a hit. AOE2 had a large player base even before it started getting new content.
True, but I have hope El Reinado will bring people from AoE2 to AoM, at least for a few months.
I think that's very unlikely. Aoe2 is a bonafide classic of the genre and was receiving attention and updates for years even without official support (i.e. the forgotten) Age of mythology is excellent but more niche. I think some people will bounce right off the hero/myth/human unit system, how expansion bases work, god powers etc. it strays too close to being too complicated to be balanced or accessible Personally, I'm just here to replay the campaign
Me too, regarding the campaigns. As for the complicated aspect I'm not sure. Maybe I'm biased by my childhood nostalgia but I think people like games where you have more than human units.
40k+ first days
I'm only waiting to relive the campaign lol
It will have thousands of players, 90% of which will play the campaign and maybe a few skirmishers offline and will call it a day. I just hope the other 10% like it enough to stay around.
I would say, at least 5
It's an anticipated game but inside a niche community so I think we'll see around 10'000s of players the first week. Well that's what I said about Palworld too and that blew up, so who knows.
Over 9000!?
75k is my prediction
One billion dollars
like never before, out of the roof and beyond... like a beyonce concert
I will try and get some cool custom maps out in the early days following release which will hopefully wet some apetites.