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Do we have any confirmation Duffy is leaving Relic/Sega? It says he is switching roles in the picture. Sounds like a promotion within the org itself.

Yes
https://www.reddit.com/r/aoe4/comments/rjnbex/age_of_empires_iv_design_director_leaves_relic/hp50hoe?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

While we're sad to see him go, we're excited to see what he's up to next. He's one of the last few "original" Relicans left at Relic who had their start with Homeworld, and he's spent all that time since being a major force on games like *COH* 1&2, and of course being the Game Director for *AoE IV*.

When you've spent as much time as you have with one company (24 years!!), especially with the launch of a multi-year project that *Age of Empires IV* is, it was not necessarily a surprise that Quinn has decided to take a step away from Relic (but trust me, it was also a huge shock to see him announce that this month was his last at Relic 🥲).

We wouldn't have been able to make this game what it is without his vision, expertise, experience, and especially his love for history. His mentorship and guidance has always been great to have, and we'll miss him (especially for someone new to game dev like me - Quinn was amazing to work with and to hear stories from, especially in our first trip to Cologne for Gamescom 2017 where we got to announce *Age IV*).

Very good news! Hope relic rehabilitate their reputation after dow 3 flop and aoe 4 controversial reaction

To be honest, I lost my hope in good coh 3 from relic at all, dow 3 was so bad that tanked all series and was so big hole, that all relic vets left studio after such hole, also aoe 4 looks like absolute pile of dog mobile clash of clans crap for android, it's not AAA-quality game and absolutely not old relic quality. So I will be surprised if coh 3 from them will be good, but let's be honest it won't feom current relic, dow 3 and aoe 4 approves their degradation.

https://techraptor.net/content/rumor-relic-entertainment-might-be-microsofts-next-studio-acquisition
Relic Entertainment, known for real-time strategy titles such as Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, might be Microsoft’s next studio acquisition if rumors are to be believed.


This comes after Klobrille, a consistent and reliable leaker, revealed a Tweet showing the newly-named Xbox Game Studios and Relic Entertainment’s logo side-by-side. Klobrille focuses on Xbox-related tweets. In the past, he has revealed most of what Microsoft’s E3 2016 had to offer as well as the announcement of Age of Empires 4 being in development.

Speaking of which, Age of Empires 4 is being developed by Relic Entertainment, which would make this rumor appear even more plausible. Age of Empires is an intellectual property owned by Microsoft. Currently, Relic Entertainment is owned by Sega, which complicates matters a bit. Sega isn’t in the best financial situation, however. So, this could be a good move for Sega to get some sort of financial gain while this studio is already working on a very high-profile title for Microsoft.


While rumors are rumors, Microsoft is setting sights on plenty of studios as of late. The acquisitions of Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment shook things up a bit but also shows that Microsoft is willing to branch out and take developers that develop a wide array of genres.

Acquisition or not, we’ll see Age of Empires featured on March’s Inside Xbox. This would be a great time for Microsoft to announce the news, and we might also expect news on Relic’s upcoming fourth entry.


Quick Take
Let’s just say that this rumor becomes reality. I think it will be very interested to see what the future has in store for Relic. My guess would be that the company becomes a studio dedicated to the Age of Empires franchise, especially if this other tweet by Klobrille is true. It’s already an extremely popular IP and they are developing the fourth game in the series. Relic’s developers are also veterans of the genre, having created quite a few excellent and extremely popular RTS titles. I know that I’m very excited to see what Age of Empires 4 has in store, and with Relic at the helm that’s even better.
So, looks like no coh 3 anymore guys.
And also I will be very pessimistic, with such promoting that aoe 4 has, I think aoe 4 will be flop, and ms will shutdown relic.