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The YouTube career of Spirit Of The Law is largely based on his expert videos for the second part of the Age of Empires series. Its first publication is already there over twenty years backbut it has been continuously improved and kept alive with the HD version of 2013 and the Definitive Edition of 2019.
Like many other fans, he must have harbored hopes that Age of Empires 4 could replace the aging masterpiece. But after a few months of focusing on the new game, he let his community know in a video message that he let it rest for the time being
We recently reported that Hera – one of the best AoE 2 players – has almost completely withdrawn from the scene after the disappointment with the fourth part and switched to League of Legends instead:
Age of Empires 4
Loses thousands of players because patches are a long time coming
Dropped video rate is not AoE 4’s fault
Spirit Of The Law has done what few publishers would believe on paper: creating videos about a twenty-year-old game and up to two million people are interested. In his most-viewed work, he makes the developer statement that the Definitive Edition AI would easily win against seven opponents with the old AI, to the test.
From the 473 videos on his channel 157 alone revolve specifically around individual game mechanics of the strategy game. It is not uncommon for this to be about the formulas behind the mechanics, because the Canadian is currently doing his master’s degree in mathematics and thus combines hobby and training, so to speak.
However, together with his move to the Canadian state next but one, that is also the main reason why he uploads almost half as many videos. It’s not Age of Empires 4’s fault and he wouldn’t lose interest in YouTube either: “I don’t want you to think this situation will last.”
There are several reasons why he is now turning his back on the game and one of them is that the number of active players has meanwhile fallen below that of the second part. He emphasized that the numbers symbolize the open construction sites of the game, but that the game should not be written off yet.
The player numbers of Age of Empires 4 (green) on Steam fell below those of the second part (blue) a while ago. However, according to the YouTuber, at least a third of the players play through the Microsoft Store and are not recorded here.
A remnant of hope remains
But he doesn’t want to go into further detail at this point as to why the number of players in AoE 4 has fallen below that of AoE 2. He is confidentthat part 4 could still blossom and referred to the promising roadmap for the next 6 months.
He hopes that the game will feel less like Early Access over time and then attract new players with discounts of between 50 and 75 percent. He would also welcome a DLC with one popular civilization like the Byzantines.
In our expert analysis you can read what we think Microsoft has to do to turn the former hopeful into a worthy successor:
Age of Empires 4:
What the game needs to change to not go under in 2022
He suspects that the developers should also be concerned when they see these graphs and would like to go back for the time being limited to videos of the second part of the series. But he keeps a close eye on the further development of Age of Empires 4 and can imagine a return if Microsoft and Relic should turn the tide successfully.
Finally, he asked his community for a little patience: with one that may appear soon DLC for the Definitive Edition of AoE 2 he has already set new goals for the channel and is only being prevented from pursuing them now by his move.
How do you assess the situation? Do you still wish the fourth part would be good enough to replace the venerable second, or do you prefer the status quo in the end? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
