Last week Microsoft finally revealed the long anticipated Age Of Empires 4. The strategy game is looking gorgeous. It has destructible buildings, large armies, and detailed animations throughout. We've only had a glimpse of the new game, but the reveal means Microsoft is at last talking about its sequel. We can learn how its new take on the classic series will play, and, importantly, how we'll pay for it.
The last completely new Age of Empires game was Age of Empires Online, released back in 2011. The free-to-play take on the series had a lot of charm, but it leaned into microtransactions. You could play for free but to fill your army you had to buy booster packs and premium content. Developer Robot Entertainment revised the model a year after launch, but it was too late to attract a large player base. The update let you unlock everything in the game with a currency you earned as you played, but the whole situation left a sour taste. Microsoft is clear in its messaging this time around: this is a full release title with no microtransactions. You buy the game or play it through Game Pass, it's not in any way free-to-play.
"The idea of microtransactions in a real-time strategy game isn't a thing," Age of Empires creative director Adam Isgreen said, PCGN reports. "DLC, expansions - all of that is things that we're going to be exploring for Age 4."
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What those expansions will contain, Isgreen says, is up to the community: "While we definitely already have ideas in terms of where we want to go past Age 4, in terms of expansions and stuff, a lot of that is going to be driven by the community and the players, where they want to see the game going."
The release of Age of Empires 4 doesn't mean the past games are going to be left behind. Microsoft plans to continue making expansions for the old releases, including the new Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. My hope is for a remaster of Age of Mythology, but more support for Age of Empires 3 would be awesome.
Featured Image Credit: Microsoft