How did Age of Empires come to live like this?

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new part of Age of Empires. The next project in the line, which will soon turn 17 years old, is a beautiful clone of Clash of Clans. We decided to recall all the games in the series to understand how the iconic series came to be cloned. 

In fact, we were tempted to just blame Microsoft, they say, brought the IP "to the handle", get nostalgic and be done with it. But the fact is that Age of Empires has been marketed by the Bill Gates Corporation from the very beginning. And, to put it mildly, not without success. 

The first part of the line, released in 1997, sold three million copies worldwide (plus one million came from The Rise of Rome supplement). This, by the way, is one of the best indicators of the series of all time.  The antique setting of the game was not chosen by chance by the developers. It was believed that this could attract casual players, who at that time were scared away from the genre by sci-fi. By the way, in six months, in March 1998, Starcraft will be released.

Age of Empires

The second part, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, appeared in September 1999. Despite the higher press ratings, the shipped edition of the game amounted to 2 million boxes. The indirect competition for the project at that time was the game of Might and Magic III, which was released a couple of months before. 

Age of Empires II

In 2002, the series returned to antiquity in Age of Mythology. As before, the development was handled by Ensemble Studios. There were enough key differences from the original series, but one of the main ones was still the transition to a new - this time three—dimensional — engine. However, the circulation continued to fall. The "Age of Mythology" is considered successful, but "only" 1 million boxes of it were sold. In 2002, the game's campaign was Medieval: Total War and, of course, WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos.

Age of Mythology

A full-fledged continuation of the Age of Empires line was released only three more years later (by this point, the total circulation of all projects in the series and all addons amounted to 15 million). The actions of the novelty developed in a New Light. Because of this, the game had a certain paraphrase with the "Conquest of America" from GSC, released in 2002. The circulation of the third part was 2 million. In the same year, Empire Earth II, Rome: Total War and Knights of Honor were released, partly "pulling the blanket over themselves". 

Age of Empires III

After the third part, experiments with the series began. The game appeared on DS, and in 2011 an online version was published, with Robot Entertainment and Gas Powered Games participating in the work. Age of Empires Online underwent a monetization change, but, apparently, without becoming a "cash cow", it was closed in 2014. After that, Microsoft began releasing updated versions of successful parts on Steam.

Age of Empires Online

The imminent release of Age of Empires: Castle Siege, however, demonstrates that experiments with IP are continuing. The game is a very beautiful clone of Clash of Clans. It will be released on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Millions of downloads are definitely in store for it, but time will tell whether the project will become a commercial hit.

Age of Empires: Castle Siege