Age of Empires IV Development Going Smoothly
As part of a recent year-end update, Age of Empires general manager Shannon Loftis claimed that Age of Empires IV is fully playable. Relic Entertainment is still working to balance and polish the experience, but they are currently playing the game every day in both the Vancouver and Washington locations. Age of Empires IV doesn’t have an official release date yet, but Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition are both available on PC and through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
“We are making great progress on Age of Empires IV. I don’t want to make you jealous, but we are literally playing this game every single day, both in Washington and in Vancouver. RTS development is funny, it takes a while to build the separate systems (AI, economy, sim, rendering, etc.), and then it takes a while for them to come together,” said Shannon Loftis. “But when they do, you suddenly have a game, a game that needs debugging and balance and polish, but the core of the game that you know you’re going to ship. And the best part is that it feels like an Age of Empires game.”
“Our partners at Relic have been incredible stalwarts as we all migrated development from office to home, and modified (through trial and error) our processes to help facilitate productivity to keep the game on track,” continued Shannon Loftis. “So much passion, such great developers, artists, designers, narrators, audio experts, and community; not to mention the backbone functions that keep the company going.”
Are you excited to play Age of Empires IV? Let us know in the comments below!