Age of Empires IV to help students earn academic credit at university

The University of Arizona history department has launched a new initiative in collaboration with Microsoft. Students will be able to earn credits by engaging with special content in Age of Empires IV.

Two professors at the University of Arizona will prepare unique educational content available on the Age of Empires website, according to NME. Players will get one academic credit by interacting with this content.

“One of my fields of research is actually the way in which the ancient past has been revisited in different kinds of media in more recent times, specifically in performance and in movies, but also novels and advertisements and things like that,” department head at the University of Arizona Alison Futrell said.

With the help of Relic Entertainment, professors will provide players with additional content. The course will be based on historical periods like the “Norman conquest of England, the Hundred Years War between England and France, the expansion of the Mongol Empire and Moscow’s journey to emerge as a new superpower.”

To earn the credit, students won’t have to pass any tests. The whole process will only be based on the experiences they will have while playing the game.

Age of Empires IV came out on October 28, peaking at 73,928 concurrent players. The game received positive reviews from players and got an average score of 81/100 on Metacritic.