We haven't heard much from Gas Powered Games' Age of Empires Online since the addition of the Norse civilization back in October which added more bearded soldiers to the MMORTS and sent our intern/resident Scandinavian berserker T.J. into fits of joy. A blog entry posted today on the official website clears things up: Age of Empires Online won't receive any additional new content, except for "a small amount of content still in the pipeline."

What happened? According to the straightforward post, the team can't maintain the high cost of continued development. "We can no longer afford to keep creating it," the studio wrote. "AOEO already has a very large amount of high-quality, hand-crafted entertainment, and adding more is no longer cost-effective."

Gas Powered Games stressed its continued, full support for the game's community, stating support tickets, forums, and everything else remains in place and unchanged. "You can still do all the things you do today, and we're not taking away anything you already have," it stated. "There will be no new civilizations or features, that's all."

Though development of new AOEO content has ceased, a countdown clock is ticking away toward the reveal of "Project W," which Gas Powered Games is calling its "next big thing."