Age of Empires 4's new Min-Spec Mode lets players who are using older PCs run the game. Age of Empires 4 is the fourth installment of the classic real-time strategy video game series Age of Empires. Publisher Xbox Game Studios is making the game accessible to as many people as possible by adding Age of Empires 4 to Xbox Game Pass and enabling older computers to run the game.
Xbox is adding Age of Empires 4 to its Xbox Game Pass alongside other games like Outriders and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The game will be available to Game Pass users on October 28th, the same day the game officially launches. Past games of Age of Empires were commonly played on Steam. Considering the fact that the newest iteration is published by Xbox Game Studios, however, it is not surprising that the game would be made available via the game subscription service.
With Age of Empires 4's Min-Spec Mode, fans using older and lower-powered PCs will be able to experience the 2021 game. In a press release, Xbox explained that the teams at developers World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment created a special gaming mode called Min-Spec Mode. This mode is just one of the new features created for Age of Empires 4. When players first launch the game, an auto-detection system creates a combination of in-game settings which can be referenced or tweaked via the settings menu. Players simply select the different options that describe their PC specs. Once the options are finalized, the combination of the settings triggers the mode.
The press release goes on to mention that many Age of Empires fans are still playing both 1999's Age of Empires 2 and 2005's Age of Empires 3 on laptops or older desktop PCs with GPUs that can't handle enhanced graphics. Furthermore, there is a large base of active fans located in certain regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America that tend to have lower spec computers. The low spec renderer is equivalent to what would have been built for an Xbox 360, which is now 20 years old. Of course, running the game in Min-Spec Mode will come at a cost. The Min-Spec Mode will have less resolution, less texture, and only four-player battles as opposed to the usual eight-player battles in Age of Empires 4.
Though the game may not seem as visually impressive in the Min-Spec Mode, it will still allow players with lower spec machines to play it. With Xbox Game Studios adding both this mode and adding the game to its subscription service, more players will be inclined to try out the game. Perhaps the new game's accessibility will boost Age of Empires' popularity.
Age of Empires 4 launches October 28, 2021, for PC and Xbox Game Pass.
Source: Xbox