I don't understand :
Relic = SEGA Dev
Age Of Empires = Microsoft IP
?? how is that possible
Bill Gates waddles to Sega HQ with a bag of money and say the following : "Hello you industrialist little fellows. I have this dank AF IP called Age of Empires. I fucked up making the third one so I want to nail the 4th one. I was top 10 Panzer Elite back in the day so I know THQ can make ace RTS games. How many bags of my crisp American Dorra's do you need so I can use THQ to make my fourth instalment of Age of Empires?"
Bill then proceeds to hand over the agreed upon amount of American Dorra's and the industrialist little fellows send a carrier raven north of the Southern Wall to Vancouver. There John Duffy reads the scroll that informs him he can start working on AoE4. He had to send a carrier raven back to Sega carrying 15 signed NDA's in order to conform with Sega's legal team.
Meanwhile the industrialist little fellows go "rorororororo we tricked the imperialist Sjpion into thinking we gave him THQ."
It was reported that Bill Gates donated 75% of his savings to his charity out of anger when he found out THQ is no more and Sega ordered Relic to work on AoE4.
Another consipracy can be that Sega fucked up their NDA agreement with both Relic AND Microsoft so they themselves had no idea what they were doing. Legend has it Sega thought it was a new Sonic game.