It’s easy for Age of Empires IV to look pretty compared to its predecessors. A beautiful new gameĪbove: Age of Empires IV will feature the Delphi Sultanate. Other games had higher priorities at Microsoft. Microsoft’s success with Age of Empires started in 1997, and the marriage of history and RTS generated so much revenue that, in addition to Microsoft Flight Simulator, it enabled a vast expansion in the company’s game investments and ultimately led to the debut of the Xbox game console in 2001.Īge of Empires and its sequels sold more than 20 million copies, but Microsoft shut down Ensemble Studios in 2009 during the Great Recession after attempts to branch out (think Halo Wars) met with limited success. Other startups working on RTS titles are Frost Giant Studios and SunSpear games.īut Age of Empires IV could exploit a much bigger opportunity in RTS for the mainstream. Meanwhile, Eugen Systems has been doing a great job with World War II titles with its Steel Division series. Sega’s The Creative Assembly has a thriving Total War series, with Total War: Warhammer III coming, Total War: Rome Remastered out, and Total War Saga: Troy, also in the market. While Microsoft’s Age of Empires franchise has been stalled since 2005 (with the exception of some retro remakes), other key players have been carrying the RTS flag. This title is actually a director successor to Age of Empires II.Ībove: You can zoom in pretty close in Age of Empires IV. I’m glad it’s finally here because I feel like the RTS genre should be a mass market, not a niche. Sega’s Relic Entertainment division has been making the game since 2017, along with Microsoft’s Worlds Edge studio, which manages the Age of Empires franchise. I think the main purpose of those games was to get people familiar with the Age of Empires gameplay again before the launch of the fourth game. I dabbled with the remakes of classic titles - Definitive Edition of Age of Empires II and III. I can’t remember the last time I played an Age of Empires game.
I played it on Steam, and it will also be out on Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the PC, and on Xbox Game Pass for PC.
In a nutshell, it’s designed for mainstream gamers. I’ll do a full review with multiplayer later, but these are my impressions from playing the introductory Norman single-player campaign. I’ve gotten a good look at the campaign part of the game. Microsoft will be launching the new installment in the Age of Empires franchise on Thursday on the PC.
But it is back for mainstream gamers, who haven’t seen a major release like Age of Empires IV for a while. Join gaming leaders online at GamesBeat Summit Next this upcoming November 9-10.
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