I feel like everyone has an Age of Empires story. Mine is playing the second instalment on the library computer, alternating between the best RTS game of my childhood and the shiny action of Runescape as I waited for my parents to finish work. I still have a soft spot for the series despite not playing the third or fourth game at all. That may change, and a whole new generation of players might be introduced to the iconic warfare simulators, as reports suggest that a new game might be on the way.
The information comes from prominent industry source Jez Corden, who hosted the XboxTwo podcast this weekend. While it’s exciting news that a new iteration of Age of Empires is in production, Corden believes it’s being made in Unreal Engine, which may delay proceedings.
“It is being developed in Unreal Engine I think,” he says. “Because, one of the big issues [Microsoft] had with Age of Empires 4, I heard, was Relic’s engine. Relic’s engine and development pipeline were very difficult for them to work with and to adapt to what people expect from Age of Empires. So they’re moving to something more proprietary, built on Unreal Engine though, but something more custom and things like that.”
A custom engine is great news for gameplay, but bad news for those of us wanting to play Age of Empires 5, or whatever it may be called, soon. Before developers can start polishing soldiers’ armor and tightening trebuchets, they’ll need to build the entire engine for the game to run on.
Corden believes “the bones” of the game are being built by the World’s Edge studio, but presumes they will partner with another developer when making the actual game gets into full swing. That tracks, seeing as Worlds Edge developed the definitive editions of Age of Empires 2 and 3, Age of Mythology: Retold, Age of Empires 4, and Age of Empires: Mobile, all with the help of other studios, including Relic, Forgotten Empires, and Tantalus Media.
Moving forward, Corden also says that Age of Empires will be a cornerstone of Microsoft’s ambitions moving forwards, especially as it looks to PC. “Age of Empires remains one of Microsoft’s most prolific IPs,” he says, “And [it has] really cornered that real-time strategy niche, which doesn’t have the same popularity that it did back in the day, but as Xbox moves deeper into PC gaming, I do think Age of Empires and games like Age of Empires are definitely going to be a major part of [its] purview.”
With a new game allegedly in development and RTS games a core pillar of Xbox’s strategy moving forward, the future looks bright for Age of Empires fans. Maybe this will inspire a new generation of kids hooked up to library PCs to discover a world of real-time strategy just like I did.
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