Age of Empires 2: Definitive Version launches on Xbox in 2023

The basic real-time technique franchise Age of Empires, printed by Microsoft since its debut 25 years in the past, will come to Xbox for the primary time on the finish of January. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Version, a 2019 remaster of the 1999 recreation, will launch Jan. 31 through Xbox Sport Go, and the extra up to date Age of Empires 4 will get a console launch “later within the yr,” Microsoft stated on Tuesday.

The announcement didn’t specify which Xbox consoles would get the brand new variations, past saying each video games can be accessible through the Microsoft Retailer, Xbox Sport Go, and Xbox Sport Go Final. The console variations will nonetheless assist keyboard and mouse inputs, and in addition be playable with a controller.

Age of Empires 4 — and all its trebuchets — launched Oct. 28, 2021, and on PC Sport Go the identical day.

“We knew that bringing the complexity of RTS to Xbox consoles was a large activity and one we needed to strategy rigorously and thoughtfully,” co-developer World’s Edge stated in Tuesday’s assertion. “The workforce has been working onerous to convey an expertise that not solely feels nice utilizing a controller, but in addition teaches gamers how one can play on Xbox.”

Age of Empire’s controller inputs could be a bit tough because the recreation entails a lot of clicking round on numerous items and scrolling across the map. The Xbox variations will function a tutorial that may present new customers how one can play the sport, in addition to the controller-specific inputs. The builders additionally added a recreation AI to assist make useful resource administration “environment friendly and intuitive.”

Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 4 will assist cross-platform play, permitting console customers to play alongside Home windows PC veterans. So we’ll see later the way it the Xbox variations measure up in opposition to mouse-and-keyboard rivals.