Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition Release Date Delayed To Early 2018
There'll be no Definitive Edition of Microsoft's classic real-time strategy series Age of Empires, which was expected to march to the drums of war this October.
The reason for the delay is balancing 'reverence for a classic' and 'embracing new tech and player expectations', explains the dev team in a blog post. The studio will invite thousands more in the closed beta test between now and release.
"When we set out to re-release the original Age of Empires (as ‘Age of Empires: Definitive Edition’), we had many debates over the extent of restoration that we should undertake. The challenge of re-releasing a classic is just that: it’s a classic and it deserves to be treated with careful reverence. At the same time, in a living, thriving genre, norms continually evolve, technology advances, and player expectations change. This is as true for RTS as for any other genre. So, the challenge is to recreate the experience not as it *actually* was but as we all remember it. How can we modernize the game while preserving the fun, discovery and magic of that first experience?"
There's no finalised date yet but they are targeting early 2018 for Windows 10. Until then fans who want to see this march to PC might like to try and get themselves into the closed beta to help with feedback. The re-release features high fidelity visuals with 4K support, more zoom levels, improved gameplay, multiplayer and a fully remastered soundtrack.
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition releases on PC in Early 2018.
