While Microsoft originally announced that the remastered version of the classic RTS Age of Empires would launch this week (October 19th, 2017). You can scratch that date for 2018.
Announcing the delay, the development team said they needed extra time to test the game’s various modes, and it sounds like they want to expand the scope of the reboot too.
“When we set out to re-release the original Age of Empires, we had many debates over the extent of restoration that we should undertake…it’s a classic and it deserves to be treated with careful reverence,” they said in a blog post. “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.
“How can we modernize the game while preserving the fun, discovery and magic of that first experience? To that end, rather than a final release of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on October 19, we will instead be inviting thousands more players from the community into our closed beta between now and launch to allow for more in-depth testing across single player campaign, multiplayer balance, fine-tuning the lobby, etc.”
It sucks – but delays are there for a reason. We wouldn’t want a shoddy launch ruining our childhood memories?
Sign up for the closed beta, here.