Time to party! Age of Empires is celebrating its 25th anniversary today, and Microsoft has made preparations to mark the anniversary of the hit franchise with all manner of festivities and merriments.
One of the best real-time strategy series ever released on PC finds its roots in the original, which hit store shelves in October 1997. Over the years—or shall we say ages—a number of RTS titles have been released to critical and commercial acclaim.
Developed by the supremely talented team at the now-disbanded Ensemble Studios, the series is now shepherded by World’s Edge, a new studio under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella. It is they who have planned a live Anniversary Edition Broadcast.
Tomorrow's our big day, and we hope you're as excited as we are! Please be sure to bring one of the following items with you on October 25th:
✨ Wondrous wololoing
đźšś Immaculately placed farms
🌳 💰 ⛰️ Wood, gold, or stoneOR write in an item of your choosing! #AoE25 pic.twitter.com/YDGNvXEoO2
— Age of Empires (@AgeOfEmpires) October 24, 2022
The event gets underway October 25 at 1 p.m. EST, during which the development team and community members will share new announcements for all five mainline games in the series.
These are Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, Age of Empires III, Age of Empires IV, and the fantastical spinoff, Age of Mythology. Barring the latter most, all three games have received remasters in the form of Definitive Editions, with the fourth entry being the current one.
The team is not sharing complete details about what we will see at the event, but the show will be broadcast on major streaming platforms, including Twitch and YouTube. The Age of Empires, Xbox, and Red Bull Gaming channels will host the live stream.
And, across the globe, those timings are:
We do know that a new Anniversary Edition of Age of Empires IV will launch for free as the full version, which has the base game and all updates so far released. The new Anniversary Update will also arrive on the same day, bringing two new civilizations: the Ottomans and Malians.
Older Age games are not forgotten, with new challenges and rewards being available to celebrate the anniversary.
The mythological Age of Mythology remains the big mystery, which remains sans the Definitive Edition treatment even as the fans continue to demand a sequel in the form of Age of Mythology II.
Not long to go before we find out what’s cooking.
