Age of empires 4 crossplay Pc#

With the sheer amount of mouse clicks and actions that a PC player would normally perform, replicating that on a console is extremely difficult. Creating an RTS for consoles is not easy. There were definitely a number of challenges we had to overcome. We feel confident that we have a version of the game that plays as smoothly as possible on a controller. How do you want the UI to look? What do you want in there? That’s where we started, and then slowly integrated PC components into what we had. For the team, it was about being given a controller and thinking about how you would want it to be controlled. That means forget about the PC interface and start with the fundamentals. Based on that idea alone, we rebuilt the UI at least twice or three times from scratch.Īlex: Basically, we wanted to make the experience feel native to Xbox. And the right thing to do was to make the game feel like a console game for a console audience. If the point of doing this was to grow the Age of Empires franchise and introduce new players, we realised we needed to do this right. It worked, but to answer the question as to why it took so long, that was years ago. It was functional, but that’s a nice way to put it. In the first prototype, we literally lifted the game, put it on Xbox, and then hooked up a controller. We build these games with the community, and for the community, so we decided to investigate how we could bring the game to Xbox. After we shipped, every time we announced anything new, and it didn't really matter what we said, every single time people were asking about an Xbox version. And with that, all of our focus was on PC because that’s where Age was and where you’d play. When we began work on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, our goal was to ship the best Age II experience ever. After we shipped, every time we announced anything new, and it didn't really matter what we said, every single time people were asking about an Xbox version.' 'All of our focus was on PC because that’s where Age was and where you’d play. It's also super fun to be able to bring the titles to a wider audience. We grew up playing Age of Empires, we love it, and it’s very important to us. I, II, III, and now Age of Mythology Retold.

At what point did the team go, ‘Okay, let's bring this to Xbox’? Also, why did it take so long?Įarnest: I'm the executive producer, and my team works on all of the Age of Empires Definitive Editions. Starting with why did it take so long?Īge of Empires II has a huge legacy as an RTS game, and the Definitive Edition has been around for a number of years now. Having played through a near-final build of the game and marveling at some of the design decisions made to bring this heady RTS game to an Xbox console - and make it work - I got the chance to sit down with Earnest Yuen, Executive Producer at World's Edge, and Alex Liu, Design Director, at World's Edge, to talk about bringing this iconic game to console. It’s also coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming with touch controls.Īnd much like Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on PC, it will pave the way for the release of Age of Empires 4 on Xbox consoles later this year.

Age of empires 4 crossplay full#

With full controller support, cross-play, cross-save, and full keyboard and mouse integration - it’s almost like the best of all worlds.

And now, with the game coming to Xbox, it feels like the next step for the iconic RTS experience. With many out there still playing for others, it was an excuse to dive back in or check it out for the very first time.Īnd it was an immediate success, led to Definitive Editions for other Age of Empires games, and even saw new content in the form of new civilization packs and campaigns. As part of the game’s 20th anniversary in 2019, Microsoft released Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which took the classic RTS game and modernised it with fancy 4K visuals, several updates, and fixes. Originally released in 1999, Age of Empires II quickly became one of the most iconic real-time strategy (RTS) games of all time, thanks to its epic blend of history, realism, engaging gameplay, and strategic momentum.