A livestream celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary will be kicking off today at 10 AM PDT, which is where it seems like the announcement is going to be made. As spotted by Gematsu on Twitter, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition has been rated for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One by European ratings board PEGI. Meanwhile, Xbox insider Klobrille is also hinting that the announcement will be made during the livestream, while fellow insider The Snitch seems to be suggesting that the console port of the strategy title will launch sometime in 2023.

As is the case with any real-time strategy game, Age of Empires is obviously particularly suited to a mouse and keyboard setup on PC, so it should be interesting to see how that’s translated to a console experience. Of course, we’ll be covering any and all announcements as they happen, so stay tuned for more updates.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition rated for Xbox Series / Xbox One in Europe: https://t.co/eO8yBCXuJu

Announcement likely during today's 25th anniversary live stream at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET. Details here: https://t.co/tL53eN903G

Gematsu page: https://t.co/iIxy2yF8X4 pic.twitter.com/gs52BsHnXv

— Gematsu (@gematsu) October 25, 2022

See you in 2023

— Elesnicho (@elesnicho) October 25, 2022

Tencent recently announced (via Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter) that TiMi Studios (the developer of Call of Duty Mobile and Pokemon Unite) is working with Microsoft and Age of Empires overseers World’s Edge on a new game in the series for mobile devices. The game is called Return to Empire, and currently slated for launch in China.

There’s no word yet on when (or if) it will make its way to Western markets, or what monetization is going to look like in the game, but Age of Empires does seem like a franchise that would do well in the mobile space. Check out its announcement below.

Meanwhile, Age of Empires 2 and 3 Definitive Editions are also getting regular new content updates, while Age of Empires 4 launches this October.

Tencent's TiMi Studios Group has confirmed it is working with Xbox Game Studios and subsidiary World's Edge to adapt the Age of Empires IP for smartphones.

The game is being developed by TiMi Studios under the title 'Return to Empire' and is set to launch in China. pic.twitter.com/xGNjQZjeKE

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 12, 2021

True to recent leaks, Microsoft have announced an Age of Empirs-focused event for April 10. Age of Empires: Fan Preview will be streamed on the day at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST, and you can expect plenty of major new updates to drop for the series.

The highlight of the show, as you’d expect, is going to be Age of Empires 4. No specifics are given as to what we can expect (fingers crossed for a release date), but the announcement trailer for the event promises new gameplay, and it’s been a while since we last saw that– so there’s definitely reason to get excited.

On top of that, new updates will also be shared for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition, which will take the form of new campaigns and civilizations being revealed. Whether both will get major new content announcement remains to be seen.

Either way, Age of Empires fans will definitely want to tune in. We’ll be covering the event live, of course, so make sure you stick with GamingBolt for all the latest updates.

After all but sitting it out last year, Microsoft will be returning to Gamescom this year in a bit way. Today, they shared their plans for all that they intend to do at Europe’s premier games show, confirming that they will be having a conference dedicated to Xbox One games, including ones that emphasize the upcoming Xbox One X, on August 20.

But for PC gamers, there is hope, too- as Microsoft promised, they will be having an entire event dedicated to Age of Empires at Gamescom, too- they have very heavily suggested that they will announce a new game in the venerable real time strategy franchise. If that is the case, then you will want to mark your calendars for August 21, which is when that event will be held.

Finally, Gamescom will also mark the very first time that European gamers will get a chance togo hands on with Microsoft’s upcoming uber powered Xbox One X- so on the whole, this Gamescom sounds like it will be eventful for Xbox fans. And as always, we will be there to cover all of it, so stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Xbox at gamescom Live 2017 Schedule

Xbox @ gamescom Live Show: Sunday, August 20 12pm Pacific, 3pm Eastern, 8pm BST and 9pm CEST.

• Can be viewed via mixer.com or the Mixer app.

Age of Empires 20th Anniversary Livestream: Monday, August 21 12pm Pacific, 3pm Eastern, 8pm BST and 9pm CEST.

• Tune in for a look at Age of Empires: Definitive Edition along with a chat with developers who worked on the games. Expect some “exciting news” pertaining to Age of Empires. Can be viewed via mixer.com or the Mixer app.

Xbox FanFest at gamescom

• FanFest will begin on Tuesday, August 22. More details will be shared soon.

Xbox Booth at gamescom

• Get hands on with Xbox One X at the Xbox booth located in Hall 8 of the Koelnmesse, North entrance. There will be 27 playable games available across Xbox consoles and Windows 10. The booth hours are from 9am – 8pm CEST, Wednesday through Saturday. Tuesday booth times are reserved for press and trade only.

Microsoft has had more false starts in the PC gaming field than can be counted at this time. While the company has undoubtedly been influential in the PC gaming arena – its DirectX and XInput APIs in particular were hugely beneficial to PC gaming, and some of its games, such as Age of Empires, are beloved by PC gamers worldwide – Microsoft has had an inability to commit to PC gamers and to give them what they want.

However, on the eve of Microsoft’s newest push for PC gaming, especially in the light of the announcement of Age of Empires‘ remaster for PC at E3 this year, Microsoft Studios’ Adam Isgreen discussed the company’s aspirations to be a major player in the PC gaming field with VentureBeat.

“The thing is, there are a lot of us at Microsoft — my whole career, I’m going on 25 years making video games,” Adam said. “Most of my career has been making PC games. I’m not alone at Microsoft. There are tons of people there that have been there a long time, and new people, who are real PC gamers. Yes, I have consoles. I have every console built since the 2600. But I’ve had a PC since the Apple II. We’re all PC gamers. We believe in PC gaming. It’s not a hard conversation at Microsoft to say, “Hey, this would be great. What are we going to do on PC? How can we make it great?” There’s a lot of discussion about what features we need to bring specifically to PC to make games great, to make people love them. We want people to believe in Microsoft as a place they can get great PC games.”

He also heavily teased a major Age of Empires announcement coming at Gamescom this year. “I’m super-excited. We’ll be talking more at Gamescom about Age of Empires. Everyone that tunes in will be super excited the stuff we’ll be talking about.

“E3 is a wonderful show, but it’s very Asia- and U.S.-centric. With Gamescom, Europe has a long and storied history with RTS games. We want to make sure we do just as much justice for Gamescom and all the European gamers as we did at E3 here today. It’s important to us that we take this here — it’ll be further along. People will be playing the beta. We’ll have more to show and talk about. But yeah, we have a whole event planned around Age of Empires for Gamescom.”

Microsoft, if you announce a proper Age of Empires 4, I will buy a copy of Windows 10 the very next day.

Of all of Microsoft’s many sins towards gaming over the past 20 years, the one that rankles the most is the unexpected closure of Ensemble Studios, and the abrupt cancellation of the Age of Empire series. it made no sense- Age of Empires was one of the most critically acclaimed franchise of all time, and the games were standard bearers of the RTS genre. They also sold a lot, bringing in millions with each new entry.

Since 2008, when Ensemble were closed down, fans have requested a new, real Age of Empires 4 from Microsoft multiple times, but nothing has actually come of that. But speaking on Reddit in an AMA, Bill Gates responded to a fan’s question about a new Age of Empires, and the response was… encouragingly positive?

“I will look into this. How many empires do you need?” he said.

Now of course, this could be easily construed as a joke, but if it were, then Gates would have clarified it right away, especially since starved Age fans ran away with it for all it was worth. And hey, Age of Empires getting a new game makes sense for Microsoft- the series was massively successful, as has been said, and the recent HD re-release of Age of Empires 2 was also a runaway success for Microsoft.

Or maybe this is just me trying my best to create a version of the universe in which Age of Empires 4 would be real.

This is the briefest of tweets of all time- but it might set off a round of unprecedented speculations and discussions. When asked on Twitter by a fan if a strategy game would be coming to the Xbox One, Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer replied with a monosyllabic ‘Yes.’

To those who are initiated with Microsoft’s catalog of classic franchises, this can be potentially a very big deal- you see, Microsoft has some of the most beloved strategy games of all time, from the Age of Empires franchise to Rise of Nations. They have been teasing a return of those franchises for some time now, and this might be referring to a new Age of Empires, for example, coming to Xbox One.

Now, of course, there is an argument to be made that you don’t want to see a classic RTS franchise on a console at all- and while I can understand how the prospect of the first new Age of Empires game in over a decade being made for consoles would be distasteful to some, I personally think that, if handled right, it could herald a return to form for the franchise.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

Microsoft has confirmed that it is working with the people who made the fanmade (but ultimately officially released) ‘The Forgotten Empires’ expansion for Age of Empires II to make yet another new one. A new expansion will be releasing for Age of Empires II later this year. Considering that the original game was released in 1999, this has to be some kind of a new record, with an expansion coming 16 years later.

Of course, the caveat is that the original Age of Empires II won’t be supporting or running the expansion after all- it is meant specifically for the excellent Age of Empires II: HD Edition, the update to the classic RTS that Microsoft released on Steam a couple of years ago, with new remastered resolutions, multiple monitors, minor gameplay improvements, and new online modes and servers. The new expansion will include new civilizations, campaigns and game modes.

In addition, Microsoft outlined plans to improve the Steam workshop for Age of Empires 2 with the addition of a mod manager in-game, among other things.

Hopefully, with all of this support for the game, an Age of Empires IV can’t be too far behind.

Okay, guys, it looks like it might finally be happening. The pieces have been falling into place for the longest time- from Microsoft’s purchase of the Age of Empires and Rise of Nations IPs recently, to them then releasing Age of Empires and Rise of Nations games on Steam, remastered. From them teasing that their older PC IPs will return some time soon, to them teasing a focus on PC gaming at the upcoming Windows 10 event this month.

And now, it seems like it might finally be happening. Meet Decisive Games- it appears to be a brand new studio formed by Microsoft to bring the “next installment in a beloved strategy game franchise to the next generation of gamers”.

Guys, it is very clear what this listing is referring to.

The only sour patch in this entire celebratory moment is that the listing seems to indicate the game will be for Xbox as well as for PC, but you know what, The Battle for Middle Earth II or Halo Wars were both released for Xbox as well, and they were great RTSs regardless. If this is what it takes for me to get a brand new Age of Empires, Microsoft, bring it on.

To those of you who, like me, were hoping for the announcement of an Age of Empires IV at E# (especially given how Microsoft has been doubling down on its older strategy games for a while now), Microsoft’s E3 presser doubtless brought you some measure and degree of disappointment- there was no Age of Empires there. As a matter of fact, no Windows game was mentioned or announced at Microsoft’s E3. Windows and PC gaming didn’t even get a mention.

Talking to Polygon, Phil Spencer discussed why that is.

“I’m head of gaming at Microsoft,” Spencer said. “When we’re doing gaming strategy, gaming focus inside the company, that’s my job. I think in a lot of ways, you could argue gaming on Windows has never been more healthy in that the biggest of the big franchises, League of Legends, World of Tanks, those things dwarf a lot of what we’re doing in this console space in terms of users and monetization. They’re all on PC.”

“[But] E3’s a retail show,” he said. “It’s a retail show, it’s a console show, so it didn’t really feel like the right place for us to talk about Windows, but Windows and gaming on Windows is critical to Microsoft’s success.”

So, if not at E3, when the world is tuned into all these game announcements, when?

“Well they do these huge world championship events and they fill up arenas,” he said. “I do think there could be a space there.

“For us, E3 is a console show and an Xbox show, and for us as Microsoft, Xbox is our gaming brand, and it’s the thing we can fill an arena like this, we get millions of people to watch us on TV and we show our games and it’s a brand that people care about.”

Spencer sort of has a point- E3 is always console centric, and it’s not like it’s an unsubstantiated excuse either. It has precedent- just a few months ago, Microsoft announced Age of Mythology Extended Edition for Steam at GDC, for instance. Still, I just wish they’d hurry up and announce Age of Empires IV already.