
At this stage the decision can only seem disappointing.Īge of Empires is a pretty classic RTS with a simple base-building, tech-up, swarm-the-enemy style. It's entirely possible that the game will be good enough to convince people to adopt the Windows Store with open arms, but it's pretty clear that Microsoft is making a powerplay at the expense of Age of Empires 4.

It's difficult to assess the results of this decision at so early a date, but it's a certainty that locking it out from Steam and GoG, and preventing other operating systems from running it will greatly reduce the playerbase (and in a multiplayer game, the playerbase is part of the content you are purchasing).
#AGE OF EMPIRES 4 SERVER STATUS WINDOWS 10#
However, we are not left without things to talk about.įor many the real elephant in the room is that it is a Windows 10 exclusive and will only be sold on the Windows Store. There is absolutely no reason to consider it at all indicative of the scope of Age of Empires 4. For an announcement trailer this is fine: it essentially recaps, quite prettily, the history of a great RTS franchise. As you near the end of the video you see that the images chosen are concept art dating from Age of Empires 3, and everything that came before was a depiction of the subject matter of the first two games drawn in the style of AoE3 concept art. The trailer itself gives no real clues: at first you might be fooled into thinking all the rather nice concept artwork must be directly relevant to AoE4's planned content, but this is not so. No release date, no game premise, no real sales pitch.

That is the sum total of actual information provided at the time of writing.
