Video Games

Age of Empires 3 has been delisted and multiplayer support will end soon

Fortunately, the fun goes in the Definitive Edition

Marco Wutz

Microsoft

You can no longer buy the original Age of Empires 3 from 2007 online, as the game has officially been delisted on October 10, 2024. Furthermore, Microsoft will end support for online multiplayer on October 30, 2024, “due to the technology no longer being supported.”

Owners of the game can still play the offline content, such as the campaign and skirmishes, and anyone who purchased the title before it was delisted should still be able to download it as usual.

Anyone who still frequents the strategy game’s multiplayer mode – and wants to continue doing so – will need to switch over to 2020’s Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, which remains very much available and supported. Interested players can even try the game out for free on Steam before making any purchasing decisions.

Like the widely celebrated Definitive Edition for Age of Empires 2, Age of Empires 3: DE is a very competent and faithful modernization of the original game, featuring visual and approachability improvements alongside brand-new content not available for its previous incarnation.

The engine used for Age of Empires 3: DE even serves as a basis for the recently released Age of Mythology: Retold, which will get a Chinese-inspired DLC soon, so it’s definitely proven itself.

Age of Empires 3 was regarded as the black sheep of the family for a long time alongside Age of Empires Online, though opinion on the gunpowder combat-focused title has improved over the years and it found a solid gang of followers making endeavors like the creation of the Definitive Edition worthwhile.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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