A hotfix for Age of Empires 3: DE patches up a memory leak on Steam

Playing Age of Empires 3: DE on Steam and seeing crashes? This might help.

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition is the third and final Age remake, released October 15, 2020.
• Update 5025 is a Steam-only hotfix that aims to rectify a memory leak issue some users were experiencing.
• Cross-play between Steam and Microsoft Store version has been temporarily disabled.
• A further update is expected next week that will contain quite a few more bug fixes.

Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition has been released for just more than two weeks, and it has now — at least on the Steam side — received its third update. Hotfix 5025 aims to clear up a memory leak some Steam users were seeing; Microsoft Store and Game Pass users don't seem to be affected by the issue. The leak could cause the game to crash, and there were some rare cases of users with installed mods seeing player profile corruption.

Now live: Steam-only hotfix for Age of Empires III: DE to address a memory leak specific to that version. Steam users can download now, Windows Store users will have these fixes in next week’s update. Crossplay temporarily unavailable: https://t.co/XW9ZfS8v8y pic.twitter.com/Gg1j8M24C1

— AgeOfEmpires (@AgeOfEmpires) October 30, 2020

The hotfix also addresses a crash that some people were experiencing while playing through the story mode mission "The Siege of Osaka." Because the Steam version and the Microsoft Store version now have different builds, cross-play has been temporarily disabled. The versions are expected to be able to play together again following another update.

And a larger update is expected next week for all versions of the game. The dev team is focusing on furthering its crash eradication, smoothing out cinematics (some would cause the game to hang), and having player ELO ranking stats show in casual lobbies. As for the Microsoft Store version, work is being done to properly show mods in the built-in browser, as well work on player names showing up correctly during matches.

The Age team does note that following this Steam hotfix, custom mods might not work properly. If you're seeing any wonk, it's recommended you disable any installed mods until further notice.

Completing The Trilogy

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

$20 at GMG

$20 at Microsoft

More Age of Empires is always a good thing

With new 4K graphics, rebalanced gameplay, and new content like additional civilizations, historical battles, and more culturally-accurate depictions, Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition should make older fans happy and draw in curious newcomers with ease.