Before today’s Age of Empires fan event, developer Relic Entertainment sat down with Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios for a Q&A roundtable on the upcoming Age of Empires 4. The franchise’s next installment was not the only game the developers discussed, as they also hinted at the potential future of Age of Mythology, a beloved-spin off of the Age of Empires series.
Released in 2002, Age of Mythology substitutes Age of Empire’s historically grounded factions with armies and gods of Greek, Norse, and Egyptian legends. Despite releasing almost 20 years ago, Age of Mythology is still a popular strategy game on Steam. Unlike most strategy games from the 1990s and early 2000s, Microsoft has not abandoned Age of Mythology, as the company re-released the game on Steam in 2014, and later released a full expansion, Age of the Dragon, in 2016. However, unlike the mainline Age of Empires games, Age of Mythology has not received a definitive edition.
A possible Age of MythologyDefinitive Edition is still plausible, however, as Age of Empires creative director Adam Isgreen hinted during yesterday’s roundtable interview. When asked about the possibility of Age of Mythology receiving the definitive edition treatment, Isgreen said, “I have not forgotten about Age of Mythology… I love mythology in general. We love the franchise. We're not pretending it's not there or anything like that. We know." While Isgreen did not outright confirm that a new edition or sequel is in the works, his response seems to at least hint that Relic Entertainment has something planned for the future of Age of Mythology.
As to what that might be remains a mystery. A definitive edition remaster seems most likely, especially given Age of Empires 1, 2, and 3 have already have definitive versions. A comment made in the interview by Age of Empires executive producer Michael Mann seems to support this. “We’re 100 percent listening to that request," Mann said, responding to the possibility of a definitive remaster.
An expansion is also possible, as Relic Entertainment used today’s fan event to announced more expansions for the definitive editions of Age of Empires 2 and 3. Fans were surprised when 2016’s Age of the Dragon expansion was announced almost 15 years after the base game released, so it does not seem like much of a stretch for Relic to release a follow-up.
Some optimistic fans may even hope that Isgreen may have been referencing a full-on sequel, though this seems unlikely. A sequel would have to be built from the ground up, which seems like something Relic would not have the time to do, especially since the developer is currently focused on Age of Empires 4.
Age of Mythology is available on PC.
Source: PCGamesN