Age of Empires Online announced

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Microsoft have just announced Age of Empires Online at Gamescom. It's a PC exclusive - an RTS played in your browser that looks to be a cross between your Evony-type strategy games and the traditional RTS format that made Age of Empires great. Trailer below:

It's being developed by Microsoft Game Studios and there's a closed beta in progress right now. You can sign up for the open beta at the game's official site .

It'll probably fall somewhere between Lord of Ultima and the old games. It doesn't look like it runs in your browser, but your kingdom does form part of a persistant world - you'll have a persistent capital city like Age of Empires III, and you can also play multiplayer missions with your friends. We'll bring you more when we get it, but here are some screens for now:

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