The Age of Empires franchise has experienced a new round of popularity in recent years. The first game in the series was released in 1997, and it was published by Ensemble Studios. They later released the second and third parts of the franchise, as well as several additions for them and the original Age of Mythology. In 2009, the studio was closed and the series was abandoned for some time.
In 2018, Microsoft began returning to the Age of Empires franchise, first releasing remakes of the three original games in the series, and then a full-fledged new part – Age of Empires IV. Now the updated versions of Age of Empires II, Age of Empires III and the new Age of Empires IV are being developed simultaneously, receiving a huge amount of new content that was not in the original games.
During the New Year, New Age broadcast, during which Microsoft talked about the near future of the Age of Empires series, they announced a lot of new content for the games in the series. They also stated that the total number of players in Age of Empires has already exceeded 50 million. It is not specified how this number was calculated, as well as the number of copies sold of the original and updated games.
Let us remind you that games in the Age of Empires series are now available not only on PC, but also on Xbox consoles. And already this year they plan to release Age of Mythology Retold, both on computers and on consoles. The entire series is offered on Game Pass.