Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is coming in November

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The first Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is now on Steam and features cross-network play with the Windows Store.

Update: The promised announcement turned out to be two announcements. First, we now have a release date for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, which will be out on November 14 on the Microsoft Store, Xbox Game Pass for PC, and—the big one—Steam. And second, the original Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, released in 2018 on the Microsoft Store, is also now available on Steam.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition also supports "cross-network" play between the Microsoft Store and Steam. If you already own the game on the Microsoft Store you'll need to download a new client to be able to hook up with your Steam pals, but it's free and all saves, campaign progress, and achievements will carry over.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is $20/£15/€20 on Steam. Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition is available for pre-purchase for the same price, and a beta test is also on the way: You can sign up to take part at ageofempires.com.

Original story:

Microsoft are presenting an Inside Xbox showcase as part of Gamescom on Monday, and they're teasing some "exciting" news related to Age of Empires as part of it. There's a couple of things in the works this could relate to. Most excitingly, there's Age of Empires 4, currently in development by Relic (of Dawn of War and Company of Heroes fame), which we don't know much about though Phil Spencer told us it's "making good progress".

There's also the possibility we could learn some more about Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. We know it's going to have four new civilizations and three new campaigns, including one called The Last Khans, as well as various quality-of-life improvements, but there's still plenty to be revealed.

Or it could be something completely new! We'll find out on Monday at 8am PT.

Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.