It's a Microsoft published/funded title, so of course it's going to be Win10. The bad part is that it might be Windows Store exclusive.

Meh, it'll probably be 3D like AoE3...

The trailer shows all the major historic eras, but also mention "a new age is upon us". My interpretation is that most of the trailer is a look back to the previous AOE titles (from bronze to colonial age), and AOE4 will be about the next (new and unannounced) age.

Would be great, AOE has always been a great series. I would imagine this will be Windows Store only though.

This is a childhood dream of mine (even though AoE3 was disappointing in many aspects and I didn't bother with AoEO). Of course, it's totally impossible that it will be released in GOG...

That was my impression as well. A lot of the pictured shown are promo material from Age of Empires III, for example. But they also stole the "stand the test of time" catchphrase from the Civilization series, so who knows what they have in store -maybe different ages a la Rise of Nations.

Seems like there will be remasters of AoE 1-3 also, of course all four will be Windows Store only :(

Edit: I didn't understand your post at first (my bad).

The AoE1 remaster will probably be Windows Store only, but the one for AoE2 has been on Steam for years. I don't think AoE3 needs a technical or graphical overhaul (not that it seems to exist a huge demand for that one).

I think they will remaster those too, or at least that's what I understood from the news. Why milk a franchise once when you can do it thrice.

Yes, it seems so. But it doesn't make sense. AoE2HD is still releasing "expansions" (granted, they are more like glorified mods). Maybe Microsoft wants to build a solid base for its Windows Store.

Probably that's it. Still their store is shite... Well, I can live without AoE...

Fantastic news! It has been a great year for RTS fans. :)

For me, Age of Empires holds a special place in my heart. It was my main franchise for years... But that was before Steam changed the gaming scenario and people stopped expecting to own a complete game after paying for it.

How bad is Windows Store's DRM?

Imagine Games For Windows Live, it will die in a year or two and leave you with a shelf full of products that never function any more. Once you have scraped the bottom of the barrel then you can juggle whether Uplay, Steam, WinStore etc. is the worse, they are all down there.

You are going to get a butch of different answers, and some people really hate the Windows Store... but personally for me it's not that bad. I've certainty dealt with worse DRM. The store itself isn't great as far as functionality goes but you only need it to download the game which has worked great for me since the creators update. Store games work straight from the desktop or start menu with nothing else needed since they are baked into the OS.

1. You can install a store app on 10 different Windows 10 devices. You can easily remove a device on the Microsoft website.

2. You can set a device as a offline device. After that most games will work offline after you launch it online at-least once.

3. So far I haven't found any 3rd party DRM that makes it worse like you can find on Steam.

4. The files are encrypted so they are not easy to get to if you don't know about computers. I haven't yet found a reason to actually need to, but if you are someone that likes to tinker with games files you won't like the Windows Store.

The Windows Store isn't likely to go anywhere, everything MS does now is geared towards UWP. All of their standard windows applications are being moved to UWP. The entire OS is built around it.

So it's unlikely they will give up on the store without also giving up on UWP, which would mean giving up on the basic functionality that is baked into the OS. Not going happen.

They will continue to push Windows 10 S and push more users to the store. I think people who think it's just going to die and go a way are not accepting the reality of the situation, ie MS is going to push hard to make win32 irrelevant.

Thank you very much for your reply. At least now I know what to expect. Doesn't sound good, to be honest... I guess GOG has spoiled me.