Age of Empires Online release date set

Age of Empires Online – the next chapter in the best-selling Age of Empires PC game franchise – will be available worldwide August 16th, 2011 in retail stores and online at http://www.ageofempiresonline.com. With its launch, the game will feature two of the greatest ancient civilizations – the Greeks and Egyptians – and offer more than 40 hours of gameplay for free!

And that’s just where the experience starts! As players grow their empires and look for new adventures, Age of Empires Online delivers the opportunity to buy new Premium Content Packs – everything from entirely new civilizations to Booster Packs with new game modes and more. It’s the biggest Age of Empires game ever.

What’s more, Age of Empires Online adds new social interaction, customization, and MMORPG gameplay in an evolving and persistent world. Play co-operatively or competitively, craft and trade items, and level up by completing quests – all for free! Plus, Age of Empires Online still offers all the classic RTS gameplay, empowering players to build mighty empires, manage resources, earn rewards, and battle their way into rich new worlds full of lively villagers, epic warriors, and historically-themed architecture.

Age of Empires Online will be released this autumn

Danan Davis, Program Manager of Microsoft, revealed for strategyinformer that the MMOG Age of Empires Online will be launched this autumn, an official announcement will be made later in the month, when its price will be communicated.

Age of Empires Online open beta this weekend

Those interested in testing of the MMO Age of Empires Online can do it now, Microsoft Gaming Studios announcing that until Sunday, May 7th, the servers will be open to all who have an account GFWL.

Gas Powered Games take over the development of Age of Empires Online

After Robot Entertainment has announced the new project, Danan Davis – Executive Producer Microsoft Game Studios – has announced on the official blog that the studio Gas Powered Games will take over the development of the free-to-play RTS Age of Empires Online. He also said that despite of these changes, the release date will remain the same.

As many of you have already heard, Gas Powered Games is now lead developer of Age of Empires Online. We figured you might have some questions about what this all means so I wanted to share a few thoughts on behalf of myself and the rest of the Age of Empires Online development team.

First and foremost, we’re thrilled! We have no doubt this is a great move for the game, and most importantly for all of you anxiously awaiting its launch this year. We’ve been working with Gas Powered Games for some time now on a collection of great new content packs (which we’ll reveal a bit later). In that time, it’s become really clear Chris Taylor and his team share our passion to make this one of the best games in Age of Empires franchise history. Rest assured, there’s a dedicated team of folks both at Microsoft and GPG who will continue to work hard to make sure this game blows you away. Anyway, with big news, you probably have some questions. We’ve tried to answer a few for you below.