After an almost silent 2020 for Age of Empires 4, we received some news about the strategy game. The sequence is in a playable state, and currently undergoing a lot of debugging and tweaking.
“I don’t want to make them jealous, but we are literally playing this game every day – both in Washington and in Vancouver,” wrote Shannon Loftis, general manager of World Edge Studio, in a year-end review. “RTS development is funny: it takes a while to build the separate systems (AI, economy, yes, rendering, etc.), and then it takes a while for them to come together. But when they do, you suddenly have a game – a game that needs debugging, balance and polish – but the core of the game that you know you’re going to release. “
The long-awaited upcoming Age of Empires of the main line was announced in 2017. In 2019, World Edge was revealed as the studio that would deal with the future of medieval games within Microsoft, as Tantalus Media and Forgotten Realms managed the definitive editions, and this it is the most substantial news since then.
Fans of the series were hardly wondering in 2020, as Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition was released and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition received some substantial updates. Shannon mentions that moving from the office to the home in the midst of the ongoing pandemic was not easy, but says the game is still on track, although no mention of a launch window.
Here is the 2019 game trailer:
It may not be the Age of Empires 4 release date that we hope for, but it is something, and we will keep you posted on the next game as we move into 2021.