Microsoft’s Relic Entertainment revealed new civilizations, graphics, and campaigns for Age of Empires IV.
Microsoft gave fans a deep dive into Age of Empires IV today, and the game looks beautiful. It looks like it could give real-time strategy games on the PC a much-neeeded shot in the arm. The company’s Relic Entertainment division has been making the game since 2017, and it finally announced it will be arriving on the PC on Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Steam during the fall of 2021. The fan event was a celebration of Age of Empires for those who miss the The Town Center. I feel like this RTS genre should be a mass market, not a niche. RTS games are best played as mouse-and-keyboard games, and are far harder to play with a game controller. That has meant that the games can’t reach as many fans and they haven’t been as popular, even though they’re hard to develop. We’ve seen big lapses in Blizzard Entertainment’s RTS efforts in brand new installments in franchises such as StarCraft and Warcraft. 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.
