I can’t tell you how many hours I spent playing Age of Empires I and II back in the day. But I assure you it was more than a few. For those who aren’t familiar with the franchise, Age of Empires is a real-time strategy (RTS) game, where you, your opponents, and your teammates play as various historical civilizations, with different special features which reflected the strengths and weaknesses of those empires. Age of Empires III was enjoyable (I bought it because it was on sale for $0.10 through Games for Windows), but it really didn’t have the same flavor. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons (the shuttering of Ensemble Studios being one of them), we haven’t seen much new content from this series, especially for fans of the older entries into the games.
Fortunately for fans, that is about to change. Owners of Age of Empires II: HD Edition on Steam may have noticed an update to their game in the last couple of days that includes several quality of life improvements. That isn’t all, however, explains MS Ryz0n, a Microsoft Studios Account Manager currently behind the game. Per this post on Steam, the development roadmap is explained, noting several more improvements to the existing game and its expansions, but also announcing that a whole new expansion will be released this year! What can you expect to come with the expansion? MS Ryz0n elaborated “you can anticipate a lot packed in there, including new civs, campaigns, game modes, units, and more,” along with increased support for the existing game and its features.
No details have been released regarding pricing or the specific date the expansion will be available, but if you follow the link to the original post, you’ll have access to several resources to follow updates as they come.
