At the Xbox Games Showcase Extended on Thursday, Age of Empires 4 developer Emma Bridle dropped the name of the final two civilizations playable in the game at launch: the Holy Roman Empire and the Rus. Bridle also named the final two singleplayer campaigns in Age 4, The Rise of Moscow and the Mongol Empire. “We’re not going to show them just yet—that’ll come closer to launch,” Bridle said before breaking the news.
Age of Empires 4 is launching with eight civilizations and four historical campaigns, and now we know them all:
- English (Norman campaign)
- Chinese
- Delhi Sultanate
- Mongols (The Mongol Empire campaign)
- French (The 100 Years War campaign)
- Abbasid Dynasty
- Holy Roman Empire
- Rus (The Rise of Moscow campaign)
During the showcase Age of Empires 4’s developers talked a bit about how community feedback has influenced the game’s design, including some tweaks to the UI—but naval combat got a special callout.
“We see data on all of the Age of Empires games, and naval was one of those things that in Age 2, a lot of people don’t use it, but if it wasn’t there people would miss it so much,” said creative director Adam Isgreen. “Sometimes we have to ask those hard questions when we’re making games. Do we need to do this? It’s something we felt weird about, so we went to the [community] council and said ‘Hey, even you guys don’t play naval all the time. Do we need it?’ And they said, ‘We see your point, but no, you have to have this.’ It was a great re-affirmation.”
Age of Empires 4 has a beta coming before release, which is scheduled for October 28.