Begin the journey with your own Greek civilization, and watch as it progresses from a village to an empire. Embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and immerse yourself in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy. Together with the Games for Windows – LIVE service, “Age of Empires Online” delivers a rich, social experience that lets you play however you want — anywhere, anytime.

Marrying fresh features with iconic gameplay, “Age of Empires Online” offers something for long-time fans, newcomers and everyone in between.

With development halted last year, it comes as no surprise that GasPowered Games' Age of Empires Online is shutting down.

Ave, all, for the last time.

All good things must come to an end, and that time has come for Age of Empires Online. It is time for the barbarian hordes to ride off into the sunset for the final time. The servers will be permanently shut down at approximately 4pm Pacific Time on July 1, 2014.

AOEO launched in August of 2011, with its first two civilizations, the Greeks and Egyptians. Over the years, we added the Persians, the Celts, the Babylonians and the Norse. We also added new modes like the Defense of Crete and Skirmish, to provide for multiple styles of play. In the summer of 2012 we even changed the basic model of the game itself, allowing players to earn Empire Points and play their way to owning more civilizations and vanity items, and adding shifting Alliances to give high-level Empires more reasons to make wars upon each other.

None of this would have been possible, of course, without our friends and partners at Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. They were the architects of the ancient world where we fought and played together. We were ambitious and risky with AOEO in a number of respects; some of these experiments worked, and some did not. As the saying goes, I do think that we ended up among the stars, most of the time.

The most thanks, though, belong to you, the players of the game. It has been a pleasure and an honor serving you all. Thank you for the time you have spent with us, exploring all these little worlds together and conquering them for the glory of your Alliance and your Empire. Thank you especially for the times you spent with each other, in PVP matches, in co-op quests, and in the forums and the rest of the internet. Thank you for playing.

If you would like to join us for the final farewell, we will be livestreaming the last hours of AOEO starting at 10:30am PDT/5:30pm GMT.