Age of Empires 4 developer Relic Entertainment has revealed that the game is making great progress and is already in a playable state. The news comes a few months after the release of the excellent Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, offering fans an update on the hotly-anticipated sequel and paving the way for an eventual release.
Age of Empires 4 has had a pretty rocky development. After initially being announced back at Gamescom 2017, little has been revealed about the title other than that it exists and is in development. Microsoft was so quiet about the game that fans began to speculate that it was perhaps running into development issues and would not be coming out for at least several years, if at all. That was until a gameplay trailer was shown during Microsoft’s X019 event, refueling hype for the game before later dropping off the radar again.
In a post titled “Age of Empires 2020 In Review” published to the game's official website, a brief update was provided on how development is progressing with Age of Empires 4. Developer Relic Entertainment is reportedly making great progress and has been playing the game every day in both of its locations, Washington and Vancouver. The team was able to smoothly transition from office to home workplaces in 2020 and is getting back on track with the game’s development, bringing together all of its different systems (AI, rendering, economy, etc.) into one RTS package.
The post goes on to describe that the team is now full steam ahead on the game and is already beginning work on future projects. Although no release window was provided, rumors have suggested that Age of Empires 4 may be launching in early 2022. Given that it sounds like the game just became playable recently, the rumors are likely well-founded and it sounds like a firm release date will be revealed sometime this year.
Although not quite the update many fans were hoping for, it is at least nice to know that the game is still alive and on track for an eventual release. The post mentions that the game “feels like an Age of Empires game,” but it is equally exciting to see what possible changes the new entry will bring to the series. It could be due for some modernization, especially now that fans of the previous three have shiny definitive editions to play around with – editions that have even been receiving new updates of their own. Whatever the case, 2021 is looking like a good year for potential Age of Empires 4 news.
Source: Age of Empires