Well before the original Xbox console was released, Microsoft was releasing hugely popular games on PC. And among those games,Age of Empireswas among Microsoft’s most popular. What followed was a decade of popularAge of Empiresreleases, from the original throughAge of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties. Now the franchise has spent a decade rebuilding, with threeDefinitive Editionreleases over the past three years. All that’s left isAge of Empires 4.
Age of Empires 4was announced all the way back in August 2017. It was announced even before the rollout of the three classicAge of Empire Definitive Editions. The years since have been starkly quiet, up until a surge of new information about the sequel during 2019. The game was still in development andearly gameplayconfirmed it was coming together. Yet again, however, theAge of Empires 4development went quiet. Anxious RTS fans shouldn’t worry, however.
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In celebration of the new year, a lengthy “Age of Empires 2020 Review” was posted by the game’s PR team. Within the update, a short message updating fans onRelic Entertainment’s progress was shared. The good news is that the team is “literally playing this game every single day.” It sounds like development is inching closer to completion. The bad news is that Relic and Microsoft still aren’t ready to share a release window forAge of Empires 4.
While the update doesn’t provide any specific information aboutAge of Empires 4’s development, it does hint at progress. Basically, it sounds like the “core” ofAge of Empires 4has come together. That being the separate game systems like AI, economy, sim, rendering, and so on. However, now that it’s come together, there’s a lot of balance, debugging, and polish that needs to take place. Still, it’s said that now “it feels like anAge of Empiresgame.” Fans can hardly ask for more than that.
Relic, meanwhile, has transitioned to working from home due to the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic. No release window may be available just yet, but the team still insists that the game’s development remains “on track.” Relic is coming together, still passionate about the project despite the serious challenges posed by the pandemic.
There’s also a special treat shared at the end of the Age of Empires 2020 Review update. The blog says that theAge of Empiresteam is “full-steam ahead” on not justAge of Empires 4, but “future projects” as well. It seems thatAge of Empireswill be around for hopefully another decade yet.
