Microsoft revived the classic Age of Empires games with remasters of the first three games over the last few years. The success of these remasters coupled with the rabid AoE fanbase led to the obvious announcement of an AoE IV.
Over the weekend Microsoft held a game stream to announce a fourth game featuring the Normans. During the stream they announced that the game will be released in the Autumn of 2021. That is the Northern Hemisphere Autumn making it the Southern’s Spring or rather third calendar quarter of the year. The game will release simultaneously on Steam and the Windows Store (ugh), but the latter is understandable as it will be released on GamePass for PC which uses that store as its backbone.
Also revealed in the stream was a new presentation style for each campaign. Called the Golden Soldiers, it projects these historical battles over modern-day locations. In a very BBC documentary style, as referenced by Microsoft themselves, it aims to contextualise these battles for modern audiences giving us a frame of reference that we otherwise would not have.
Joining the Normans will be Civilisations representing the English, the Chinese, the Mongols and the Delhi Sultanate along with three as yet to be announced Civilisations. You can play as all of these civilisations sometime in the period from September to November this year.
We’re certainly looking forward to it!
