Today marks the 25th anniversary of the classic strategy Age Of Empires and to celebrate Xbox Game Studios announced a bunch of upcoming updates. Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition next year. Technically, a bit of major news from stream of memories tonight it’s both Age Of Empires II: DE and Age Of Empires IV coming to Xbox consoles in 2023 (that, and Age Of Mythology is coming back), but the result of all that is that the PC versions will get very similar benefits, including controller support, console cross-play, and cloud gaming support.
Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition will arrive on Xbox on January 31, 2023, with Age Of Empires IV “later” that year. While I’m sure many AOE PC gamers will continue to use mouse and keyboard to play these games in real time. strategy games, it’s nice to see more input options. It seems Xbox has also put a lot of thought into making them a viable option.
“We knew that bringing the complexity of RTS to the Xbox console was a big undertaking, and we had to take a careful and thoughtful approach,” wrote World’s Edge customer voice director Emma Bridle on the site. Xbox News Wire.
“The team has worked hard to deliver an experience that not only feels great when using a controller, but teaches players how to play on Xbox. A new guide designed specifically for controller input Controls combined with a new user experience for consoles will get players started.We’ve also added a new game AI that helps manage resources in an efficient and intuitive strategy game. ”
As mentioned above, Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition will also get optional cross-play support between all platforms when the console version launches, allowing web-surfing PCs to play with Xbox-ers. Plus, if you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber and want to use some extra AOE on your phone or laptop via a web browser, it’ll also be playable via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
These new additions are all highly requested features from the players themselves, according to Bridle, who she calls “the beating heart of the franchise” in our new 25th anniversary interview with the World’s Edge development team. Nic Reuben spoke with both Bridle and creative director Adam Isgreen about how the series has evolved over the past quarter century, and it’s packed with fascinating insights.
Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition is now more available on PC Steam and Game Passas well as Age Of Empires IV, which you can find here on Steam and here on Game Pass.
