[2022] Community Roadmap Update: Setting Our Sights On 2023

We were so excited to celebrate Age franchise’s 25^th Anniversary and the subsequent release of the Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition with you and have enjoyed seeing you all take part in Season Three, which brought new civilizations and maps, the addition of taunts and cheats, a naval balance rework, and more. As we continue the festivities through Season Three, we know you’re curious about what the after-party looks like! Starting in February 2023, we’ll have new content, requested features and some enchanting environmental surprises to bring your way with Season Four: Enchanted Grove. 

Before we head there, we’d like to give a quick shout-out to our Ranked Season Two participants. Your achievements will be immortalized on our Season Two Leaderboard! Be sure as well to tell a friend and secure your place on the Season Three Team Ranked Leaderboard while there’s still time! 

Check Out Leaderboards

Additionally, we’d like to thank those of you who tuned in to the Red Bull: WOLOLO Legacy tournament! If you missed it, you can check out the VODs for the event over at Red Bull Gaming’s Youtube Channel. 

A Look Ahead Into Season Four

Season Three continues with new events still on the horizon, but as always, we’re eager to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come in Season Four, which shakes things up with a new seasonal experience and brings a pointed vision and focus on releasing new content for our community to enjoy (maps and a game mode!).  Season Four doesn’t just bring new content: we’ll have some exciting balance changes and will also be continuing the work to further decrease chat delay based on your feedback. Here’s just a quick look at some of what to expect next February:  

• Inspired by the popular Age of Empires II, we’re bringing Nomad mode to Age of Empires IV! With Nomad mode selected, you’ll start with a few scattered villagers instead of a Town Center. Without a Town Center, you’ll need to take care of your slower start to be tactical and adapt to the unpredictable! Nomad mode will be selectable via the Game Setup screen for custom and skirmish matches.

• You’ve expressed to us which Landmarks you like and dislike, so we’re also providing Landmark Improvements in Season Four! Not only will we have balance improvements on Landmarks, we’re also looking to make enhancements to some of the Landmark selections that haven’t quite made the mark with you. You can’t change the Landmark you’ve chosen during a game, which means you’re committed to that option – and we know that this is a pretty important choice once you Age up. Therefore, you can look forward to more strategic gameplay changes with Landmarks, so the less-used Landmarks will now be present more viable strategies or have unique features to stand out as a compelling choice. Keep an eye out for our updates on which Landmarks are changing and how! 
• Based on your feedback, we’ve taken a look at what we could do to make mod navigation clearer and easier. The Improved Mod UI means that you’ll be able to find and download mods much easier than you did before! 
• You’ve mentioned you’ve wanted to see a faster time between the messages you send in-game, and we know how important communication is — especially in Team games — so in Season Four, we’re making some fixes for Improvements to the Chat Delay! 

• In addition to New Maps, we’re introducing a new Special Seasonal Biome! You can look forward to an enchanted place with some interesting sights to look at.  We’ll also be exploring how we can tie seasonal elements into our approach to Events. Stay tuned to learn more! 
• We’re also making some UI-specific improvements to both the Minimap and Garrison interfaces. Starting in Season Four, you’ll will have the ability to resize your minimap to one of the following options: 100% (default), 125% and 150%. As well, we’re bringing a new Garrison UI that allows you to see the building info panel while units are garrisoned, an item we’ve seen much-requested by the community!  

We’ll have more to share as we lead into the release of Season Four, including balance changes, new Seasonal Event and Ranked rewards and bug fixes!

What’s Still to Come

As we mentioned in our 25^th Anniversary Broadcast, Age of Empires IV coming to Xbox devices next year, available for purchase or with Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition will be on sale in the Microsoft Store November 22^nd through 30^th and on sale on Steam from November 22^nd through 29^th. 

Season Four is just the start of things for us in 2023! Keep an eye out as we continue to plan new ways play, new maps and biomes, and new ways to get rewarded; not only that, but we’re excited to continuing building upon Seasons and Events with you by our side! We’re also continuing to expand our map pool, and will keep improving both multiplayer and single-player modes, along with overall game balance. In other words, you can look forward to: 

• Age of Empires IV on Xbox devices! 
• More Seasons and Events! 
• More Maps, Biomes and Game Modes! 
• Improvements to Caster Mode! 
• Ongoing investigations for tweaks to the map pool! 
• Ongoing balancing and bug fixing! 
• And more! 

This is just a small peek at what’s to come! We expect we’ll have plenty more details to share with you as we draw closer to Season Four. 

Tell Us How We’re Doing  

We’ve come a long way since we initially launched the game last year in October 2021. We’ve been hearing all the positivity from you, and we’re not stopping our pace any time soon! We’re always looking out for your feedback, so here’s how you can continue to help us shape our direction:  

• Share your thoughts in our official Age forums! 
• Join the official Discord to meet other players! 
• We’re looking ahead to our Season Four Public Update Preview (PUP), so be sure to become an Age Insider to stay up-to-date on the next PUP and get first hands on with Season Four features, content and improvements!