Why ‘Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition’ Is Not Arriving This Week

Sorry, but “Age of Empires: Definitive Edition” is not arriving this week. It won’t be coming to PC players the following week either. To be very honest, there isn’t a specific release date for the rerelease version of Forgotten Empires’ hit game. What’s known for now is that the team behind it is targeting an early 2018 release.

Last Friday, the “Age of Empires” team wrote an update via the video game series’ official website. In the update, the team revealed that its members had several debates on the work they should be doing onto the classic game. The team admitted that they are faced with the challenge of modernizing a classic without compromising the fun factor and the quality of the gaming experience.

“The challenge of rereleasing a classic is just that: it’s a classic and it deserves to be treated with careful reverence. At the same time, in a living, thriving genre, norms continually evolve, technology advances, and player expectations change. This is true for RTS as for any other genre,” the team stated.

Knowing that players expect a lot from the rerelease of the original “Age of Empires” game, the team decided to reschedule the release of the game. Prior this, the “Definitive Edition” was slated for release later this week, specifically on Thursday, Oct. 19.

Instead of launching the game for PC players this week, the team is now inviting loyal followers and members of the community to join the closed beta, which started on the day the update was published. Through this closed beta, the team wants to do more in-depth testing across single player campaign, multiplayer balance and many others.

“We will be actively engaging with everyone participating in the closed beta to gather additional feedback, set up multiplayer sessions and ensure that the ‘Age of Empires: Definitive Edition’ that we are delivering is the ‘Definitive Edition’ that you want.”

Players interested to join the closed beta can sign up here. PC Gamer says one will need an Xbox Live account to join since this is a Microsoft Studios-published game. Furthermore, the game won’t be arriving on Steam. It will instead come out on the Windows Store.

In August, the developing team revealed the things that they are working on for the rerelease. Surprisingly, the list included a couple of new features. Attack Move, Rally Points Basic, Rally Points Contextual (Intelligent Villagers), 250-300 Population Cap, Grid Default Key Layout and Unit Queueing are just some of the features found on the list.

The delayed release of “Age of Empires: Definite Edition” means the remaster won’t be arriving in time for the original game’s 20th anniversary. The first “Age of Empires” game was released on Oct. 15, 1997. Despite this, the team managed to give fans a little something to celebrate the milestone. The team shared a special clip that takes players to a trip down memory lane. This is the same video clip that was shown during the Gamescom announcement stream, but here it is again.