For those hardcore CoH fans and marketing people that are "soft balling" the launch of CoH3 with “unpolished” content"/work in progress.
I suggest you take a few moments and learn from the AoE4 mistakes/delusion of grandeur as it has failed to dethrone AoE2 as the king of the series.
As it stands,
AoE2 won vs AoE4's delusion of grandeur;
As thousands of "filthy" CoH casuals (the majority) get their hands on CoH3 beta Feb 23, 2023;
https://www.aoezone.net/threads/current-situation-on-aoe4-and-aoe2.178560/page-95
Jan 9, 2023
Glad the situation is finally solved. Too bad we had long months of drama, almost all pro players and some community members completely abandoning aoe2 for several weeks or months, often while making lots of audacious statements* only to come back in shame after their falsely beloved new title failed to meet any expectations... and bunch of shills/trolls on aoezone who kept attacking anyone who dared to not be hyped for aoe4.
*Nili saying he doesn't want to watch a match between players of BacT's level, Jordan saying he has no intention of preparing for Memb's tournament, all GL boys tricking their audiences by claiming aoe4 has so much potential and is sure to be a big hit and people should try the game out instead of complaining etc. etc. it didn't take long for them to do a 180 and start shitting on aoe4 at every occasion, despite praising it to heaven few weeks earlier (looking at you, DauT)
Well, most people are willing to forgive, me included. However it should also be remembered. All the shallow praises for new product, all the unjustified calls to turn blind eye to game's plethora of problems, all the shade thrown at true fans who saw through aoe4 since the start and knew it has no chance of competing with aoe2 in either game quality or fanbase retention...
Let's hope the future will be bright and we won't have to deal with such trainwreck again. Things are looking good. A lot of pro players active, a lot of upcoming talents (praise T90 for giving them opportunity to shine in TTL!). Bunch of tournaments and some are even properly announced more than a month beforehand! Experiments with format (DWL bringing 9 vill start to "mainstream consciousness" is so good), lots of variety. AoE 2 is well.
Lessons learned?
As a studio/publisher if you don’t have the money and/or talent to live up to the great legacy of DoW, AoE and CoH IP, don’t make it a sequel, make it a spin-off.
If so, rename CoH3 to;
CoH: Mediterranean Front
Or something like that.
Historically speaking, there have been two spin-off games to Homeworld IP (former Relic IP).
Homeworld: Cataclysm
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak