Relic working on Age of Empires 4

Reveal

Well. On one side i'm shocked. AoE was my first pc game ever.
On the other side i want to know more because "hey, it is AoE".

I'm so heavy confused.

But congraz @ Relic. It is a big chance and i will wait to see the result (and i hope it will be a great game).

Wait, rip the coh3 dream?

Good for Relic and good for the those long-waiting AoE fans. AoE2 was my first ever video game on the more hardcore spectrum (anyone else here get raised on edutainment adventure games?), but I don't think its style is my thing anymore.

to use a time worn quote, "hey new guy, don't fuck up!"

I was just about to sleep and woken up now. So many questions. I remember there was a poster years back picturing AEO4 as WW2 and AOE5 as Futuristic Wars. We all wondering about COH3 for 2020 and now Relic is doing AOE4 maybe as ww2 setting. If so, aren't they working on coh3 or who is working on AEO4? Makers of DoW3 or COH2?

Major franchise will surely interest other companies as well. EA with Battle for the middle earth and Blizzard Warcraft 4 could enter sooner. Very good news for RTS lovers! Kreygasm

I was just about to sleep and woken up now. So many questions. I remember there was a poster years back picturing AEO4 as WW2 and AOE5 as Futuristic Wars. We all wondering about COH3 for 2020 and now Relic is doing AOE4 maybe as ww2 setting. If so, aren't they working on coh3 or who is working on AEO4? Makers of DoW3 or COH2?

Major franchise will surely interest other companies as well. EA with Battle for the middle earth and Blizzard Warcraft 4 could enter sooner. Very good news for RTS lovers! Kreygasm

The image was a joke by Ensemble studios and AoE5 was Halo.

My best bet is that they are going to use this as testing ground for new tecnologies, mechanics, and who knows what else, Age of Empires is gonna succeed no matter what, you would have to be triying to fuck this one up.

Then, they'll use that on COH3, after all, as much as thay can love AOE, COH is still their baby, and after DOW3, Relic doesn't want to lose the COH community and fans as well.

edit: delete post plox since Microsoft's in charge of the business model

+1
It'll be fucking microtransactions everywhere.

to use a time worn quote, "hey new guy, better not fuck up!"

Lol, how adequate.
"Ya you'll do, fall in line"

Age of Empires is gonna succeed no matter what, you would have to be triying to fuck this one up.

DW, Micro$oft will think of something for sure.

And this is the same old shit with new 4k graphics, that is going to be a massive money grab by an organisation out of ideas.
If there is nothing new, I am not spending my shekels on MS

Hey, a game my dad and I can enjoy together since we played it back in the day.

Yet, I'm a bit worried after looking at Dawn of War III.

Holy shit. Wasn't expecting this.

Two thoughts:
- Maybe microsoft is just licensing out the Essence engine for it? Is it possible Relic isn't actually the dev? It's weird that sega would let them work on a title for another publisher.

- I really don't have faith in Relic to not fuck this up somehow. They are going to either make it just like the old AoEs and fuck it up because they have no experience making a classic style RTS, or they will make it so much like CoH that is pisses off all the oldschool AoE fans.



Edit: Relic confirms they are the devs.

"[We] couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the legacy," a blog post reads. "We can’t wait to tap into our strengths as a studio to fuse historical context with deep strategic gameplay, and to bring this franchise back to the forefront of gaming and into the hands of its beloved community."

interesting...

Grab your friends. Tell your mom you have scarlet fever, and embrace the Wololo. AoE4 is coming....

Roses are red.

WOLOLO

Roses are blue.

I'm not surprised only by the timing. If anything this confirm they are planning to port both COH and AoE4 to Xbox that runs windows 10. This is a growing cross platform team IMO, they will recruit new devs for this. I suspect they will do PC first on steam and then port later to Xbox. With Halo Wars 2 they got that backward and no steam support except Halo Wars: Definitive Edition. Hopefully, this is PC first, xbox second. Info from Phil Spencer (see below interview link) about AoE seems to confirm this will be on steam.

Introducing @AgeOfEmpires IV [T], only on #Windows10. Check out the brand new trailer. #gamescom2017

https://twitter.com/Windows/status/899729582747602944

AoE2 in recent years has been making a comeback on steam. AoE2 vs CoH2:
http://steamcharts.com/cmp/221380,231430

Company of Heroes dev reckons it's solved the RTS on console problem Published 02/06/2014
But it's keeping its "plausible solution" secret - for now.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-02-company-of-heroes-dev-reckons-its-solved-the-rts-on-console-problem

Working with Head of Microsoft Studios/Phil Spencer, properly save SEGA a lot of money building a larger cross-platform team. This is a win-win deal for both publishers. Combined with Creative Assembly, this will grow to become a pretty large RTS team. Who knows, maybe Creative Assembly will be involved in COH3 (for Xbox).
I said years ago they were planning something bigger than Halo wars 2 and this is just the beginning. Wargaming/CA team also has plans to bring Total War: Arena to console.

Total War: Arena Dev Talks Possible Console Edition And Avoiding Pay-To-Win
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/total-war-arena-dev-talks-possible-console-edition/1100-6449249/

Phil Spencer (MS gaming executive) is the real deal and does seem to care about making good games. After Ed Fries left MS gaming, xbox/pc had some bad years with leadership and studios leaving/going defunct.

Ed Fries - "Making Stuff" - D.I.C.E. 2014 Summit

FYI, ever since leaving MS Ed Fries has been helping indie devs including former COH1 vets that has worked on the AoE IP (mobile) for years now. http://www.smokingguninc.com/
When Company of Heroes vets build the next Age of Empires.. (August 28, 2014)
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224356/When_Company_of_Heroes_vets_build_the_next_Age_of_Empires.php

When Smoking Gun Interactive was offered the chance to pitch a mobile Age of Empires to Microsoft, the studio didn't need to be asked twice.

So now we have COH vets working on both AoE mobile and PC/Xbox. Very interesting. AoE is MS biggest RTS title and have eSport potential.
Biggest Age of Empires 2 tournament ever has $120,000 prize pool
https://www.pcgamesn.com/age-of-empires-ii-hd/biggest-age-of-empires-2-tournament-ever-has-120000-prize-pool


Phil Spencer interview June 13, 2017
http://www.pcgamer.com/phil-spencer-interview-we-have-work-to-go-do-on-improving-the-windows-store-uwp/
The head of Xbox talks Age of Empires, Windows Store, and says "as a first party, we need to build some PC-first games."
[Phil Spencer has previously said he practically consider Creative Assembly as a first party for Halo Wars 2]

I'll wrap up with a nice one. Tell me a little bit behind the process behind how Microsoft decided to bring Age of Empires back. Had it been kicking around for a long time?

I want to give Shannon Loftis a ton of credit. Shannon's been in Microsoft Studios for a long time, and is somebody I've worked with and have a ton of respect for.

There's some franchises... it's interesting, as we're investing more in our first party, and we've looking at new IP in some of our existing franchises and things that do really well, Age is just one of those things that year after year on Steam, we see it continue to sell, even though the infrastructure that's underneath the game is creaking a little bit. The community's been there supporting it.

She said, you know, this is something we should bring onto our modern platform. Make it visually more up to speed. You're obviously not going to take that game and completely make it a 4K game and everything, but make it look something closer to modern. Support some of the Live features that we have. And then let's think about where this franchise can actually go.

We own it, so maybe it seems like we're talking about ourselves a little bit, but I think it's one of the important franchises in gaming, and I think it deserves a future.

It's the 20th anniversary. So this could be the start of the renaissance? That's how you feel about it?

I do. And I think the interesting thing is the community's been out there kind of supporting this game without us. And shame on us, right?

They crashed the website today.

[Laughs] I'm really excited. They crashed our website? I actually didn't see that.

Straight off the reveal. They had it back up quickly.

Good! Good. I was involved... I started working with Ensemble on Age 3, I think was the first one I as a studio manager was working with them on. That was a studio that had some real vision in what they wanted to do with this mix of history and RTS coming together. I think it's one of those franchises that deserves a great future.

As soon AoE4 was announced they are already hiring a new game director.
https://boards.greenhouse.io/relic/jobs/805315

FYI; Quinn Duffy (COH2 game director) recently updated his linkedin profile;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/quinn-duffy-95311622/

No DoW3 credits included. So Quinn Duffy has been working on other projects/games since they gave up on their five years COH2 plan.

Sega promotes John Clark and Creative Assembly's Tim Heaton:
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sega-promotes-john-clark-and-creative-assembly-s-tim-heaton/0185200?

Meanwhile, Heaton will continue in his role as studio director at Creative Assembly while also becoming a flag bearer for the continued development standards of Sega Europe's numerous studios. In addition to supporting Sega Europe's other studio directors, Heaton will also advise on best practice and encourage cross-studio collaboration across the business, and keep in close contact with Sega Europe's COO and president about all studio and development matters.

Cross-studio collaboration might be related to Relic expanding to console. CA AAA console team was Halo Wars 2 and Alien Isolation.

I also noticed one Microsoft gaming community manager has been active in COH (more than 100 hours in-game) and social channels. The name COH cupecake/ArtistRage. Also wrote the Community Spotlight on Generals Gentlemen:
https://www.microsoftstudios.com/news/2016/02/29/community-spotlight-generals-gentlemen/

https://twitter.com/MSStudiosBlog/status/704819878197235713
Say hello to the gamers in this week's Community Spotlight! YouTubers Generals Gentlemen: http://j.mp/1TMpYTR
1. mar. 2016

https://www.twitch.tv/artistrage/videos/all
https://twitter.com/cupecakeplays
artistrage/cupecake

Hey there! I'm a community manager at a game studio and a freelance artist. This is where I come to play all my fave games and to get creative during my time off. Go ahead and give a follow so you know when I'm live!

shows previous games' settings
"Together, we have battled throughout history..."
AoE IV
"Now, a new age is upon us..."

Could this be modern Age of Empires? CoH3?

Honestly, Relic has made 2 of my favorite RTS of all time, i have had countless hours of fun playing CoH,CoH2. But at the same time, i have also had countless hours of fun playing AoE 3 so i hope, Microsoft is going to help Relic out and not just leave it all to them, and step in if Relic goes too far away from the way AoE is, and i also hope Relic has played all the AoE games to see how the game should be made, i'm not saying they should just copy paste the other 3 games, i'm just saying, don't make this game into a CoH copy,

Maybe make it a mix? Just please don't fuck this up! And please, don't be future themed!

inb4 windows 10 store exclusive.