The traditional real-time technique franchise Age of Empires, revealed by Microsoft since its debut 25 years in the past, will come to Xbox for the primary time on the finish of January. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, a 2019 remaster of the 1999 recreation, will launch Jan. 31 by way of Xbox Game Pass, and the extra up to date Age of Empires 4 will get a console launch “later in the year,” Microsoft stated on Tuesday.

The announcement didn’t specify which Xbox consoles would get the brand new variations, past saying each video games can be obtainable by way of the Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The console variations will nonetheless assist keyboard and mouse inputs, and in addition be playable with a controller.

Age of Empires 4 — and all its trebuchets — launched Oct. 28, 2021, and on PC Game Pass the identical day.

“We knew that bringing the complexity of RTS to Xbox consoles was a massive task and one we had to approach carefully and thoughtfully,” co-developer World’s Edge stated in Tuesday’s assertion. “The team has been working hard to bring an experience that not only feels great using a controller, but also teaches players how to play on Xbox.”

Age of Empire’s controller inputs is usually a bit difficult because the recreation includes numerous clicking round on varied models and scrolling across the map. The Xbox variations will characteristic a tutorial that can present new customers the way to play the sport, in addition to the controller-specific inputs. The builders additionally added a recreation AI to assist make useful resource administration “efficient and intuitive.”

Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 4 will assist cross-platform play, permitting console customers to play alongside Windows PC veterans. So we’ll see later the way it the Xbox variations measure up in opposition to mouse-and-keyboard rivals.