Update (Tue 16th May, 2023 18:00 BST):
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition's Return of Rome expansion is available today, launching on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The price is just £9.99 / $12.74, and even less if you're an Xbox Game Pass member!
We'll throw the link and some screenshots of the expansion down below.
Original story (Tue 25th Apr, 2023 18:00 BST):
Microsoft has announced that the first Age of Empires title is effectively returning as an expansion pack for Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. The 'Return of Rome' teaser (which you can watch above) showcases the new DLC pack in action, which will add 17 AoE civilisations to the recent remaster.
One of those civs is a brand-new one coming for the first time with this DLC pack, while the other group of 16 is formed of every civilisation from the original game. Here's how Xbox describes this new Age of Empires mashup:
"Welcome to Return of Rome, a completely new type of expansion pack which brings Age of Empires, the title that started it all, into Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as a brand new self-contained experience. This new expansion will allow you to challenge friends with the original sixteen Age of Empires civilizations — plus one brand-new Return of Rome exclusive civilization, the Lac Viet— and relive the triumph and trials of antiquity.
Battle your way across the ancient world with three new campaigns featuring conquerors, empire-builders, and gifted tacticians fighting desperately against fate! As an additional bonus, the Romans will no longer be bound by time as they become a new playable civilization within Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, ready to battle in the new Age."
As this is just a teaser for now, Microsoft hasn't fully detailed its rollout plans for the upcoming Age of Empires 2 DLC pack, including whether the expansion will come to Xbox consoles day and date - or if at all. We'd expect it to arrive on Xbox given the excellent console port of the base game, but until we have confirmation of platforms, we can't say for sure!
Would you like to play this DLC for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition? Let us know if you're hoping it comes to Xbox in the near future!
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Comments 6
Interesting. Injecting the AoE 1 content as DLC likely will result in some very interesting mixes, but at the same time there is a thing itching at the back of my brain about the fact they wont be likely to rename the game Age of Empires 1+2 Definitive Edition.
Weird how they're taking the L4D2 approach instead of just porting AoE1. Does this mean that they'll dump AoE3 into AoE4??
AoE1 was released as a Definitive Edition just before AoE2 was, so it's pretty weird they're essentially making it obsolete now.
@Xeno_Aura AoE1DE is still a thing, and free with GP when this is a DLC players would have to pay for.
This is also the only way Xbox console gamers get to play AoE1 content.
I guess the main goal of this is the crossover of being able to play all the civilizations from AoE1 that were not available in AoE2. I only casually played a bit of AoE1DE, so no clue how much crossover already existed, if any, between the two game lists of civilizations.
@Xeno_Aura probably for the best. There were a lot of bugs on aoe1 with units getting stuck into other units the last time I played it.
@UnusedBabyWipes Sorry, but AoE3 will never be given the same treatment as with AoE1 case since it's so radically different than 2 and 4 due to its Home City Shipment system (the very same reason why it will never get a console port either)
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