Profile of SturmtigerCobra

Microsoft Redmond:
AoE4 beta program for early/prototype builds (see below)?
Microsoft AoE job announcements and hiring ModSquad company:
https://modsquad.com/

New Age of Empires Franchise Beta program

Senior Program Manager:
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/senior-program-manager-at-microsoft-1118620173/
At Microsoft Studios Global Publishing, we are hard at work continuing the great legacy of Age of Empires, our beloved RTS game. We are a passionate group responsible for this amazing franchise and are expanding our team looking for a wonderful colleague that can manage our Flight/Beta program.

As the producer for our Beta program, you are a key link between the players and the development team. You will be responsible for the day to day management and execution of our Age of Empires Franchise Beta program, an important initiative where early and prototype builds of our Age of Empires titles are provided to players for feedback and extended test opportunities. You will help manage all aspects of the ecosystem including creating the long term roadmap, working with our various teams on planning & execution, interacting with and managing beta communities, and ensuring feedback from our players is heard, categorized and prioritized.

This gives you an important role with direct impact ensuring that we put our players first and deliver games that delight and engage.

New AoE Beta program:
Job announcements + linkedin confirm Microsoft hired the ModSquad for AoE community interacting & content:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ModSquad
https://modsquad.com/

Evan Teicheira | Brand Representative at Microsoft (ModSquad)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanteicheira/

At heart, I am a community builder. My aim is to create next-level games and gaming platforms by building bridges between development teams and their communities, providing opportunities for advocacy and leadership within the larger gaming community, and by empowering players with the tools and understanding they need to inspire meaningful, positive change in the games they love.

Age of Empires Social Media/Customer Support Manager
ModSquad
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/age-of-empires-social-media-customer-support-manager-at-modsquad-inc-1187542008/

ModSquad is looking for an experienced Community Content Project Manager to help us at Microsoft Studios Global Publishing. Our ideal candidate will have strong organizational skills, the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects, and a strong eye for quality community content. In this role you will work closely with the Age of Empires Community Managers and other internal teams to ensure a world-class brand presence in both customer-facing channels and internal reporting.

The day-to-day tasks can greatly vary depending on the phase of development, but key responsibilities include
*SNIP*

Age of Empires-Content Creation Superstar
ModSquad
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/1271080038/

ModSquad is looking for a Community Content Specialist to help us at Microsoft Studios Global Publishing. Our ideal candidate will have strong visual content creation and copywriting experience, a passion for interacting with fans, and a keen eye for quality Community content. In this role you’ll be working closely with internal and external teams creating visual and written content to engage a worldwide audience.
*SNIP*

By god, they're going to bring all of their RTS franchises to console if Iron Harvest is succesful.

May God help us all and shield us from this plague called "consoles".

I'm not nitpicking and it's fine to be very critical.
From my POV it was either PC/mobile or PC/console expansion.
Ancestors Legacy + Iron Harvest is proof of concept, that console might work for a spin-off CoH game.
I doubt this will be a faithful sequel to CoH1/CoH2, so they have to market this differently (not CoH3).

Relic job annoucement | SENIOR CAMPAIGN DESIGNER:

https://boards.greenhouse.io/relic/jobs/1596614 | http://archive.ph/w5uvD
You would be a good fit if you…
Have helped create some of the best turn-based strategy games in the market

It's worth noting, Atlus leadership who make console RPG's convinced Sega upper management to improve gaming quality. Atlus is owned by Sega Sammy Holdings same as Sega.

President of Sega Games Finally Realizes That Gaming Quality Is Important, 2015:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/08/president-of-sega-japan-finally-realizes-that-gaming-quality-is-important/#4b2effde40f1
In a recent interview with Famitsu he made the following and rather telling comments.

“As far as the Western market goes, we learned a lot from Atlus. If we can make a title with proper quality, I believe there’s a good chance for it to do well even in the West for players that like to play Japanese games.”

Atlus has been highly successful with Persona 5 on PlayStation.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/14/how-sega-found-its-third-party-identity-with-pc-gaming-atlus-and-its-classics/
*SNIP*
GamesBeat: And then Sega also owns role-playing game master studio Atlus. Persona 5 is a big success story this year. Has Atlus exceeded expectations for Sega?

Clark: Whether we can say it’s overperforming or performing to expectations, we’re really delighted with Persona 5. Everyone across the Sega organization is proud to be able to say that we were part of that, however big or small a part each individual played. Persona 5 is a flagship brand for Sega coming from Atlus now. It’s very strong. We appreciate that. We talked before about the connection with the community, identifying the uniqueness of the community. That’s embodied in the Atlus titles, particularly Persona.

John Clark, EVP Publishing at SEGA Europe
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-clark-8b060614/

What Atlus expect from reviewers

https://twitter.com/JohnLHardin/status/769371699544403968
Not faulting the streamer or his manager for wordchoice, but I want to be crystal clear on what I expect of reviewers:

John L. Hardin, Atlus PR Manager 2013-2017
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlhardin0810/

Microsoft posted a big survey for the whole AoE community:

https://microsoft.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_23vYZpPZQSieMU5?loc=13/
https://twitter.com/AgeOfEmpires/status/1129489245725286400
Seems related to AoE4/Relic, I completed the survey so can confirm.

Hi Age player! Thanks for clicking on our survey link. We would love to hear your thoughts on Age of Empires. Your opinions are very valuable to us, and can help us make the game even better.

In this survey, we will ask you about your experience playing Age of Empires, and what you do or don't enjoy about playing the game. We will also ask some demographic questions so that we can have a better idea of who is in our community. The survey should take about 15-20 minutes.

At the end of the survey, we will ask for your email address if you are interested in being contacted in the future to talk more about Age of Empires. This is completely optional. Your survey responses are kept private and shared with Qualtrics only to receive your responses. We will anonymize your personal data after the survey closes.

You are agreeing to this data collection and use by filling out this survey and submitting your responses back to us. Your privacy is important to us, and we are committed to handling personal data responsibly. To learn more, please read our Privacy Statement (link opens in new window).

Please note: to participate in this survey, you must be at least 18 years old and not be a Microsoft Employee or Vendor/Contractor working at Microsoft. You must also agree to the Microsoft Confidentiality Statement.

If you have any questions about this survey, we are happy to help. Please contact us at XRsurvey@microsoft.com.

Mobile Users: Please try both landscape and portrait orientations while going through the survey for the best viewing ability.

Please read and select questions carefully, as you will not always have the option to go back and change your answer.
I agree to the Microsoft Confidentiality Statement and wish to continue with the survey.

After several delays, Kickstarter start next week.
Sega have set a deadline just before Microsoft E3 and/or Gamescom.







For some reason, Relic studio trademarks have been removed from early box version?:


CoH console announcement E3/Gamescom?
Along with AoE4 news, I think Relic/Sega will announce a new CoH game and Microsoft/Sega partnership for next-gen console games.
I hope they are careful how they market this. If announced in a vacuum there will be some CoH community backslash, just saying.
Personally, I won't fight this as long they don't market it as CoH3. Many PC fans, myself included expect a faithful sequel to CoH1/CoH2.

Stay tuned for new CoH trailers/CoH Online?:

http://www.thesequencegroup.com/relicentertainment2018/
Hello Relic Entertainment!
Eager to pass along some of our new material in hopes we can collaborate again.

source:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/graememccormck/


35:00 - Quinn Duffy Console RTS

This old youtube interview is related to the Eurogamer interview:

Company of Heroes dev reckons it's solved the RTS on console problem

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-02-company-of-heroes-dev-reckons-its-solved-the-rts-on-console-problem
"There was always a talk of strategy games on console," Duffy said. "We were just like, 'oh my God, how do you do that?' We think we came up with a plausible solution, which I'm not going to talk about.

"There's some stuff that's been back burnered for years because we wanted to see how technology, the market, control and touch emerged. Hopefully we will be positioned to adapt to some of that."
*SNIP*

'Company of Heroes': Relic Entertainment "open" to a console version - MAY 2012

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a382937/company-of-heroes-relic-entertainment-open-to-a-console-version/
Relic Entertainment is "open" to the idea of Company of Heroes on a console.

General manager Alex Peters said if the studio can find a way to bring the series outside of PC it will "do it".

"RTSs (real-time strategy) have struggled to find their place on console. If we can figure out, and the timing's right, how to deliver a great experience - and I think it would be a different experience - we'll do it," he told Digital Spy.

"But, again, it has to be that we'll feel confident that we deliver that kind of experience people expect from Relic."

Relic Has the Scale and Support From Sega To Think About a Console Return, April 12, 2017
https://www.dualshockers.com/relic-scale-and-support-from-sega-to-think-about-console-return/

Relic Console Game Director + Executive Producer (most likely):
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdisbrow

Game Director on an exciting unannounced strategy game, the kind that Relic Entertainment does best! Currently working with an excellent team to build a creative vision, game pillars and the feature set. Lots of engaging, fun work to be done and great people to do it with.

Brent Disbrow is former Smoking Gun Interactive (run by CoH1 vets).
David Littman, console/pc Executive Producer since 2017:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-littman-52668b27

A second game director, Erik J. Caponi are partly involved (most likely). But Relic/Sega building a brand new development team/game since early 2018. This could be CoH3.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecaponi/

DoW Mobile Expansion & CoH3 Plans

I think Sega/Relic's plan was to make CoH3 after studio expansion with AoE4 (former CoH2 leads) and DoW3. Some fans have joked DoW4 could be a mobile game, that's fairly accurate.
From linkedin we know they recruited at least two mobile DoW leads/Executive Producer:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeswanson (2013-2014)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamstephenmac/ (2015-2016)
From THQ/Relic days we have Adrian Crook, cross platform leader of 'Relic labs' (2004-2008)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian/
Shipped The Outfit, Relic’s first console title and THQ’s first and only Xbox 360 launch window title
Founded Relic Labs, a concept incubation group

Top mobile game consultants since 2008:
http://adriancrook.com/

According to linkedin, CoH was on the backburner from 2015-2017.
Due to the failure of DoW3, started to rebuild CoH team in 2017 with community surveys + free CoH giveaways (both 2017 and 2018).
2017 giveaways:

2018 giveaways:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-08-company-of-heroes-2-is-free-right-now

I could be wrong. But if true, two separate CoH development teams from 2020 onwards.

The problem IMHO is the Wargame community (one of Eugen's game series). This community hate SD series because theres not a "Wargame sequel" done and they flamming SD game in social networks until the death.

SD - WW2
Wargame - modern warfare


Its kind ridiculous, but it's true.

Thx for explanation. Seems like a similar fan reaction to Valve Artifact announcement:


IMO, there is a real risk the same could happen to CoH as Sega/Relic try to expand the franchise.
Fans like what they like, trying to belittle them and change their minds is counterproductive.
One of the reasons why marketing, clear communications and knowing your audience/fans expectations is so important.