It’s been 25 years since a small studio in Dallas reimagined the ancient world through the lens of a real-time strategy game. Age of empires echoed Monk vololos about our homes since then: Parents believed their children were learning history; the children secretly believed they were playing a game. Veteran players know this both were right.

Still Age of empires has not always received the love it has today. The rise of the Xbox saw PC gaming take a backseat to Microsoft: As did Communities AoE‘s left to themselves. In a very real way, it was the passion of these obsessives that led Microsoft to refocus and release the franchise. last entry2021 year Imperial period IV.

All games continue to receive updates or DLCs. Age of empires are games Focused on Xbox and mobile devicescomplete with cross-play so console gamers can get their hands on the RTS classic and Play with PC loving friends. Also, The Age of Mythology finally gets the definitive edition. IV age builds momentumas well, with an anniversary edition that completes a year of updates designed to attract players who initially felt a bit put off. AoE now a point of pride in real-time strategy and a shining gem in Microsoft’s roster.

On October 25, then watching the anniversary event— and while enjoying the series’ iconic music performed by an amazingly skilled band of lute-wielding bards — I spoke with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and World’s Edge studio head Michael Mann about the franchise’s past and future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

WIRED: So it’s the 25th anniversary Age of empires, and I know, Phil, you’ve been at Microsoft for over 30 years. You’ve seen this evolution of the franchise. But I think there was definitely a gap for both real-time strategy and strategy Age of empires, where it doesn’t look good. Was there ever a moment when Microsoft was like this? Age and the real-time-strategy genre? And then, the second part of that, when and what did it become? When you say, wow, is this worth revisiting?

Phil Spencer: So this is a good topic to draw. That is, what we see Age it was less about the genre, to be honest, and more about how the community continues to play. The games were still available to buy and we just saw a community of live people playing there. And we weren’t actively engaged with the community as Xbox. When Xbox started, I would regret to say that we took our focus away from PC and focused more on consoles, which was meant to be a franchise. Flight Sim and Age— the communities were left to fend for themselves a little. And as we developed our gaming strategy, we started looking at franchises in our portfolio where communities were active, large enough, and really engaged with the game and each other, looking at players playing on any screen. And Age he was there as one of the franchises.

So we had the opportunity to find a good partner. And return Age With Relic [Entertainment]genre-savvy partner, we saw this as a great opportunity to meet the community where they are, with their passion. Age. I would say the same about the ads AgeBy coming to comfort, we try to show the community that we recognize their love Age of empireswhat it means to so many people and I’m proud that we can now sort of step up and do our part as IP owners and franchise operators.

Michael Man: I also want to congratulate Ensemble Studios – they created the franchise 25 years ago. I know World’s Edge will enjoy the holiday too. But I also want to reach out to Tony Goodman, Bruce Shelley, and say, all of these guys did a great job building this franchise 25 years ago, that we’re ambassadors for moving forward.