about 2 years ago - AoE Official - Direct link
Age of Empires IV - Public Update Preview

The Age of Empires IV Season Three Public Update Preview (PUP) is LIVE right now! Through September 27th, owners of Age IV on Steam can now be one of the first to try our two new civilizations – the Malians and the Ottomans.

This PUP session provides a hands-on look at what’s coming to Age of Empires IV in our Season Three update. 

What To Expect

Our Age of Empires Public Update Previews (PUPs) present an opportunity for our incredible players to get hands-on experience with exciting changes ahead of major updates, and they also provide an opportunity for passionate players to give feedback and help us prepare for upcoming major releases.

Along with the new Ottoman and Malian civilizations, here’s what you can look forward to in this Season Three Public Update Preview:

  • Eight new maps
  • A sneak peek of Taunts and Cheats
  • Team Ranked functionality
  • Updates to Naval balance
  • …and more, including additional balance changes and quality of life improvements!

Get Ready for PUP

Check out the Release Notes and read all about the available content and spectacular changes that are afoot for Age IV in an upcoming update!

⚠️Note that you’ll need to log into a Steam account that owns Age of Empires IV to view the PUP section of the Steam forums.

A survey requesting specific feedback will also become available later in this preview session.

⚠️Some features in this preview are not yet final or reflective of the intended official release.

This includes, among other items, the final unit speech for the civilizations of the Malians (Malinke) and Ottomans (Turkish). In this preview, the new civilizations are using the English civilization unit speech. This is a placeholder only as we work to finalize the unit speech of these two new civilizations with care.

To ensure you don’t miss any news about this Preview, make sure to sign up as an Age Insider. This will ensure you receive brief emails for when the PUP is starting and ending.

How to Access the PUP

To get started with the PUP build, owners on Steam can download the  Age IV  PUP by following the instructions below:  

  1. Navigate to your Steam library and right click on  Age of Empires IV.
  2. Select Properties… at the bottom of the menu .
  3. Select the BETAS tab on the left.
  4. In the Select the beta… dropdown menu, select future_live .
  5. The build will begin downloading – once complete, you are ready to play! 
    1. Please note that during the PUP, you will be required to launch the Content Editor from the Age of Empires IV section of your Steam Library as well. More information here.

Please note that replays in the PUP build are not compatible with the retail version. Players in the PUP version will only be able to match with those also on the PUP build. To revert back to retail, simply change your beta branch (step 4 above) back to “None.”  

We hope you join us for this fun-filled experience, and we can’t wait to hear back from you!