RTS Age of Empires IV - Medieval Again

[Fedora Master]

I couldn't find a better version sadly. The sign in the fist panel says "Do not dump debris or snow here." by the way.

 

[Morgoth]

The Russians say Relic is in trouble:
https://game2day.org/news/25369/insaider-studiya-relic-entertainment-na-grani-zakrytiya

Joogle Übersetzung:

According to the resource glassdoor, specializing in insider information, the Canadian developer of Relic Entertainment has faced serious problems and the existence of the company is in question. If you believe an anonymous source from the development staff, Relic Entertainment is experiencing serious problems with its management, which can not cope with the work on the market of RTS and its community.

Inexperienced management of the studio led to huge losses and can generally lead to the closure of the developer. Indirectly, this confirms the work with new titles Dawn of War III and Age of Empires 4. The microclimate inside Relic Entertainment is at a low level. Ordinary developers, seeing that any of their initiatives are cutting at the root, are on the verge of a strike. The company's toxic atmosphere led to a serious staff turnover, which is why the fate of Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes is in question.

CEO Justin Daudswell in a conversation with reporters confirmed the difficult situation that Relic Entertainment is experiencing now.

I'm still bitter over the Ensemble Studios closure to this day.

Couldn't care less about Relic's fate as Age IV is bound to become a disaster.

 

[Sentinel]

Well, that's what happens when you betray your audience for 3 games in a row in an already shrinking market.

 

[Space Satan]

Good riddance

 

[thesheeep]

So.... Petroglyph, then?

Here's the whole thing, actually an interesting read, and there is a response by Relic (which is the typical PR garbage, of course):
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Relic-Entertainment-RVW18568693.htm

 

[fantadomat]

I read the review and sounded like a pissy,greedy,sjw retard whine-bag.

 

[Sentinel]

Yeah he does sound like a guy who doesn't even like RTS games to begin with. Which explains a lot of Relic's recent games.

 

[mbv123]

kill it before it stains the AoE name

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah he does sound like a guy who doesn't even like RTS games to begin with. Which explains a lot of Relic's recent games.

To me it sounded more like he is unhappy with how Relic keeps on trying to cater to the same (small) crowd instead of trying to bring some useful innovation in.
DoW3 is a game that nobody wanted - obviously made with a ton of compromises to try and appeal to both classic RTS and MOBA fans, including extremely weird unlock mechanics - and in the course pissing everyone off.
And I, too, can't help but wonder who thought the game in that form was a good idea. It is obviously the result of misguided vision, which seems to be the main complaint.

Stuff like that seems to be the basic complaint, not that they are doing RTS games.

We should take a very serious look at what the landscape for RTS and Strategy games are and assess if we have the right people and technology to create hit games.

Doesn't sound like he doesn't like RTS games.
You probably only read the first sentence

 

[Infinitron]

It's alive, really! https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empi...microsoft-will-talk-about-it-later-this-year/

Age of Empires 4 is 'making good progress', and Microsoft will talk about it later this year
"We've been incredibly impressed by Relic's capability," says Xbox's Phil Spencer.

Yesterday, I sat down with Microsoft's executive VP of gaming Phil Spencer to discuss Game Pass coming to Windows, the company's attitude towards Steam and a whole lot more. One subject I just had to ask about, given the opportunity, was the current status of Age of Empires 4. The Relic-developed sequel to Ensemble's historical strategy series was announced back at Gamescom 2017, and didn't feature in the Xbox E3 briefing on Sunday. The good news is, you'll be hearing more about it later this year.

"We'll talk about it more this year," Spencer says. "Relic's great as a studio, we're making good progress with it. One of the things I loved about our show [on Sunday] is the things that we didn't show. We had 60 games, 14 first-party games, with 12 shipping in the next year. And then I know, like okay, what's The Initiative working on? Where is Age 4, how's that going? I think Playground has a second team, what's going on with that? Where's Turn 10, they didn't show up?

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming later this year, and the same treatment is on the horizon for the third entry in the series. It feels like one of Microsoft's priorities as it looks to attract PC players to its new Game Pass offering. Microsoft also announced a 'newly founded' Age of Empires studio on Sunday, too.

Look out for my full Phil Spencer interview later this week.

 

[Shrimp]

Have they said anything about which age(s) the game will cover?

 

[Sentinel]

Nope. There's 0 info.

 

[Santander02]

Kwa Civil War maybe? I hope not, there's a far more interesting conflicts to during that time period to explore. Let me mow down samurais with gatling guns or see Paraguay hopelesly fend off legions of HUES and Gauchos plz.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The age needs to be somewhere from Dark Ages to 17th century. Those are the coolest times for a combat based strategy game. Anything before then was similar to middle ages (swords, spears, armor, shields, etc) but not quite as cool, and everything after is just modern type shooting stuff which is bleh.

They also need to focus on a short span, like AoE2, and not do a lot of ages, like Civ. That always kills the fun, as you spread your shit over too much bread.

If they had any brains, they would borrow some stuff from Stronghold and Dwarf Fortress and RPGs. Do a small scale medieval type game where you start with a small group of individual people, that you can train up in RPG stats/skills, and give equipment to. Build interconnected castles/fortresses, fight enemies but also do various quests on the map. This kind of game would be amazing.

Alas, almost no one in game development has brains, especially at Microsoft level, so expect a Rise of Nations type game through the ages, with shallow mechanics and focused on multiplayer deathmatch crap.

 

[Belegarsson]

Did anyone post this? Apparently Microsoft stealthily opened a new AoE studio led by ex-Xbox Game Studios manager.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news...y_established_a_new_Age_of_Empires_studio.php

Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine might've stolen the spotlight at the company's E3 press conference, but the U.S. console maker has also formed another new studio on the quiet.

In a blog post detailing the move, Microsoft revealed it has established a new Age of Empires studio helmed by veteran producer and former Xbox Game Studios general manager, Shannon Loftis.

The company expressed a desire to commit more resources to expanding the Age of Empires franchise to "ensure its legacy on PC continues in service of the passionate community of faithful fans."

The Double Fine purchase and formation of the new Age of Empires studio means Microsoft now has 15 studios making games under the Xbox Game Studios banner, with the new pair joining familiar names like Halo developer 343 Industries, Minecraft maker Mojang, and Forza developers Turn 10 and Playground Games.

Maybe this will be the main AoE dev after Relic's done their deed with 4, or maybe this one is continuing Emsemble's 5 eras plan (if it's still on Microsoft's mind, lol). But then again, I wonder where can they poach talents from that know how to make proper RTS. Petroglyph? A few veterans left from Relic? A few indie devs like the one behind Tooth & Tail and They Are Billions? I can see this one being The Initiative 2.0 for Microsoft's RTS branch, and if they somehow revive old IPs (and not fuck them up of course) such as Mytho and Rise of Nations then it would be huge.

 

[Lycra Suit]

A stone age to bronze age setting would be neat. Like empire earth's early game.

 

[Infinitron]

Gameplay footage on November 14th: https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/age-of-empires-4-endlich-gameplay,3348090.html

 

[tindrli]

hmmm the video does not work for me

 

[J1M]

They should go big and make the first Age the Age of Warp Drive.

 

[Beastro]

A stone age to bronze age setting would be neat. Like empire earth's early game.

Trouble I could see would be making the factions distinct from one another.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.pcgamesinsider.biz/news...-firm-overseeing-other-studios-working-on-ip/

Gamescom 2019 - Microsoft's new Age of Empires arm isn't a developer, firm overseeing other studios working on IP

The newly-announced Age of Empires studio headed up by Shannon Loftis at Microsoft isn't directly making games, but instead is more of a production outfit overseeing other studios' work on the IP.

That's according to Microsoft creative director Adam Isgreen, who told PCGamesInsider.biz that the company's responsibility is to make sure that Age of Empire games from other studios are going in the right direction.

Microsoft has worked with developer Forgotten Empires for the Definitive Edition of Age of Empires - which was released in 2018 - and the modern update of its sequel that's launching in November. Isgreen says that Australia's Tantalus Media is working on Age of Empires III Definitive Edition, too.

That's on top of the Big M bringing in Sega-owned Relic Entertainment on-board to make Age of Empires 4.

The new Age of Empires venture was announced at E3 2019 alongside Microsoft's purchase of adventure game specialist Double Fine.

"We do have an internal team but we're really providing oversight to our wonderful development partners - our team at Forgotten Empires that made Age of Empires Definitive Edition and is working on Age of Empires II - Definitive Edition, but we also have a group in Australia - Tantalus Media - that's working on Age of Empires III," Isgreen explained.

"We have Relic up in Vancouver. But they're also helping each other out with all the games, too. Our role at Microsoft is to enable these great developers to make Age products and to be the overseers and the ones making sure that we're on-message and on-brand for delivering what we believe to be great Age of Empires experiences. They're accessible, for all ages and you may learn something about history whether you want to or not. That kind of approach, a game that's accessible that is really meant for a large audience, across the world. We have a wonderful userbase from all across the globe that plays Age of Empires games every month and we want to make sure we can bring everybody in, not just from specific cultures."

 

[Morgoth]

Old news but should be mentioned:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/age-of-empires-4/gameplay-reveal

Age of Empires 4 gameplay footage will be revealed in November

Earlier this year Adam Isgreen, creative director for the Age of Empires series, said that we should get to see an Age of Empires 4 reveal sometime this year, possibly either at Gamescom – which is in full swing this week – or at Microsoft’s XO19, which kicks off in November. Now, general manager at Xbox, Aaron Greenberg, has has confirmed that the reveal will be at XO.

 

[Infinitron]

It's coming:

 

[Infinitron]

lol it's medieval!



Medieval II: Total War Age of Empires

 

[Tigranes]

Guys, one thing's for sure, gameplay has definitely been revealed by this gameplay reveal video, no doubt about it