The Age of Empires mobile version has been officially announced by Microsoft during the 25th Anniversary Livestream. This marks a significant pivot for the franchise, which has so far remained largely exclusive to PC. The Age of Empires mobile release is being developed by Xbox Game Studios and World’s Edge Studio, and it is hoped that this will lead to a more successful game.
The Age of Empires Mobile announcement is quite exciting for Microsoft but still makes you wonder why it took them so long. The game was originally released in 1997 and became an instant classic, but it’s taken 25 years for a mobile version to be announced when so many other similar games to Age of Empires have been already ported over to mobile or directly made for mobile devices. Popular names like Rise of Empires: Ice and Fire or Rise of Kingdoms have taken the Mobile RTS throne in the meantime.
Will Age of Empires Mobile be a straight port of the original game or will Microsoft try to mix things up for a new audience? That’s currently unknown, but I’m sure it will be a great success regardless. The original game is still played by millions of people to this day, so there’s definitely a market for it on mobile devices.
The one thing I hope they don’t push too hard is microtransactions. It would be a shame to see one of the best RTS games ever made be ruined by greedy monetization practices. It’s also the thing I hate most in Rise of Empires: Ice and Fire, as most of its castle skins and other special buildings such as the VIP Shop are behind a paywall, and you are pretty much forced to spend money to stay competitive.
Age of Empires Mobile Release Date
Unfortunately, no release date has been announced yet. However, considering the usual mobile game development process, we hope early betas will be available on both iOS and Android devices next year.
Personally, I’m quite curious about how this game will end up looking. The 20-second teaser trailer does not reveal much about the game and there is no gameplay footage as of yet either. Here’s the trailer:
