Last year proved challenging for everyone, yet many game studios have soldiered on through the adversity, World's Edge being one of them. A dedicated team tasked with overseeing all things Age of Empires, World's Edge has kept their momentum with the releases of the definitive editions of both Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 3, all the while announcing that Age of Empires 4 has made great strides in its development throughout the year.
Still wildly popular amongst its unwavering fans, each installment of Age of Empires still manages respectable concurrent player counts. Considering the first title released in 1997, and Age of Empires 2 being arguably the most popular in the current trilogy released in 1999, the maintenance of online leaderboards and organization of officially recognized tournaments has kept interest kindled and the community thriving.
As explained by World's Edge team lead Shannon Loftis, "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." The development of Age of Empires 4 is unique in how the number of prolific teams organized by World's Edge including the studio's own input all collaborate. These teams include Relic, Tantalus, Forgotten Empires, and Wicked Witch, all carrying on the legacy of Texas-based Ensemble Studios.
Currently, Age of Empires 4 is receiving extensive playtesting. In the meantime, fans have found increasingly creative ways to enjoy Age of Empires, while awaiting development updates on the next installment in the series, already cited by the developers as keeping the feel of the previous games alongside the new features and systems.
Age of Empires 4Â is currently in development for PC.
Source: ageofempires.com