Ensemble Studios has developed a reputation for creating consistently high-quality real-time strategy games, thanks in no small part to the success of its Age of Empires franchise. Consequently, it was grimly received this week when Microsoft confirmed that it would be closing its internal studio after Ensemble's current project, Halo Wars, ships for the Xbox 360 in early 2009. Although Microsoft noted that the Ensemble management team intends to open a new, independent studio, the publisher made no mention of what would happen to the lucrative Age of Empires franchise. Posting to its marketing venue GamerScoreBlog today, Kevin Unangst, director of Microsoft's Games for Windows PC label, confirmed that it has retained the rights to Age of Empires. "If you're a PC gamer, you've likely played some version of Age of Empires somewhere along the line," said Unangst. "I want to reassure you that Microsoft will still own the Age of Empires intellectual property. As a company, we're very excited about the future potential for Age of Empires, and as a PC gamer I'm looking forward to what that future holds. Stay tuned." Ensemble released Age of Empires III to critical approbation and commercial success in 2005. Two expansion packs were subsequently added onto the game, The Warchiefs and Asian Dynasties, the first of which was developed by Ensemble and the second created by THQ-owned Big Huge Games. Source This means there will be more age of empires games!! Can't wait for it!
Age of Empires is a classic, but I have to be honest I really favourite the first game, and it's expansion Rise of Rome. I couldn't get into the second that much, and although I never bought the third I would like to check it out at some point.
The 3rd is the only one i have played and I loved it. Was on it all the time when I got it. I dont think i would like the 1st and second as much because they are a little further back in history so its more like swords but this one has pistols and stuff..
I actually loved the first game because of it's simplicity; the names of the units (villager, clubman, axeman, etc) don't waste time with stuff like militia and the likes which you saw in AoE2. Anyway that's probably just me refusing to learn all the new names and such, I certainly did play AoE2 a good amount but I never got into it as much as the original.
I found the first Aoe very easy to get in to, I didn’t really play the second one a lot as i preferd the first one over that. However when the 3rd one came out that had me hooked and ive had it installed on my pc since 2005. At first I didn’t like the 3rd one at all but the more I played it the more I got in to it, I think the home city idea is great, basically the more you play the more upgrades you unlock such as factories you can use in future games you play. I’m glad this is not the end of the Aoe series
If they make a new one I wonder how it would be. Im thinking a bit like WW2 so the people have thomsans and maybe planes. I think that wuld be very cool.