Of all the Xbox Game Studios we’ve featured in our monthly spotlights,
World’s Edge is unique. Created as caretakers of the Age of Empires IP,
World’s Edge doesn’t actually build any games. Rather, their mission is to tap the top talent
in the real time strategy space and empower those teams to deliver great RTS experiences.
Founded in 2019, the story of World’s Edge is just beginning. To understand where they fit
into the grander scheme, we need to go back to the 1990s—a golden age for the RTS genre.
Age of Empires was created by Ensemble Studios,
which was spun out of the Ensemble Corporation in 1995 by Tony Goodman,
brother Rick Goodman, and John Boog-Scott. They had a passion for games—but no experience.
Tony Goodman’s passion took hold as a child, when he was in a club called the Historical Simulation
Society along with Bruce Shelley. Shelley went on to co-design Sid Meier’s Civilization,
so when Goodman was looking for talent to join Ensemble, Shelley was a top pick.
With Ensemble, Goodman wanted to create ”the greatest video game the world had ever seen.”
Now all they needed was a brilliant idea. The concept for Age of Empires came together
organically. The team shared a love of strategy games and history, and the RTS genre was on
the rise. All signs pointed in one direction. Ensemble looked at Warcraft, Command & Conquer,
and Civilization, with a mind to combine their best features, and to succeed where those games
fell short. No simple feat. Ensemble started with a small
demo. “All you could do was chop trees at the time,” Goodman (above) recalls. ”But
it looked kind of like Age of Empires.” It was an effective calling card. Former
Microsoft General Manager Stuart Moulder knew it was worth signing right away. “It
was actually pretty amazing because what we saw in this very, very limited demo
was the heart of…what we loved about Age.” In 2001, Microsoft acquired Ensemble outright.
The original Age of Empires made quite a splash. It sold millions of copies,
won several awards, and many critics lauded the game’s combination of building and conflict. In
an already crowded RTS space, Age stood out. Age 2 was the perfect blend of familiarity
and innovation. New mechanics and improved multiplayer propelled the series to new heights.
A universally-acclaimed best-seller, Age 2 is now regarded as one of the all-time greats.
Age 3—which benefited from lessons learned from the 2002 spin-off Age of Mythology—
was another hit with gamers and critics. It won several RTS of the Year awards, and IGN called
it a “superbly balanced and polished game.” Ensemble Studios closed after finishing
Halo Wars in 2009 and new Age content was relatively sparse for the next few years.
However, the seeds for the series’ revival were already being planted.
Age of Empires III re-launched on Steam in 2009, and Age of Empires II: HD Edition
followed in 2013. According to Shannon Loftis, the Head of Microsoft Game Studios Publishing
who would go on to lead World’s Edge, this ignited a fresh wave of interest in the franchise.
“We recognize that gamers live and play in lots of different places. Not only on console.”
Loftis (above) told Windows Central. “And [Age of Empires] is just such a slam dunk,
obviously to revive and bring back, and also bring Microsoft back into the PC development era."
And so, Age’s resurgence became a foothold in the new path Microsoft was forging for
gaming. It was about meeting gamers where they were and offering experiences for
every kind of gamer—including RTS fans on PC. Reviving Age meant going back to the beginning.
Fortunately, dedicated fans had kept the original games alive with a variety of mods and home-brewed
expansions. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition has its roots in this community-generated content.
Joe Staten, Creative Director at Microsoft, explains how they came to work with Forgotten
Empires, the studio that grew out of this modding community. “For us,
it was a really easy call. We’ve got a group of super-talented developers
and we’ve got this great game that people still love. What can we do to modernize it?”
Like an advancing army, Forgotten Empires—supported by Tantalus Media—next
set their sights on the Definitive Edition for Age of Empires II.
The 4K remaster launched in the fall of 2019, taking the torch from the 2013 HD Edition—
which had also been growing in popularity. In May 2020, PC Gamer called it “by far
Steam’s most popular RTS.” To this day, Age 2: DE has
tens of thousands of daily concurrent players on Steam, making it a permanent fixture on the
platform’s Top 100 (and #53 as of this writing). Age 2 is a hard act to follow, but Forgotten
Empires and Tantalus produced another faithful 4K update with Age 3: DE. Most recently, the United
States has been added as a playable civilization. So when and how did World’s Edge enter the
picture? Loftis explains that the studio formed organically. “Gradually over time,
we added people like Adam [Isgreen] to the people that were focused on Age. And so we
had achieved what I would call a critical mass of commercial success with these games on Steam,
and after that, it became pretty easy.” The studio was formally announced at E3 2019,
with the name revealed at X019, alongside a first look at Age of Empires IV gameplay.
By this time, Age of Empires IV had been in development for two years at Relic Entertainment,
the studio behind Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.
Loftis said the radio silence was deliberate. “We're going to let Age 4 talk for Age 4,”
Loftis said. “I've learned, the hard way, that promising features that then don't pan out is much
worse for gamers than having folks maybe wait a little longer to learn what's in the game.”
While hype was minimal, other communication channels were opened. A Community Council was
established in 2017 and player input became a key component of Relic’s design loop.
Emma Bridle, Director of Customer Voice at World’s Edge, explained that “we've poured through
every piece of feedback…and we've made real tangible changes based on what they've told us.”
Making players part of the process speaks to World’s Edge’s vision for Age—and the studio.
Loftis believes that “Age isn't ours anymore. We're stewards, it belongs
to the community, and it belongs to the globe.” With all hands on deck for the October 2021 launch
of Age of Empires IV, no one is talking about Age 5 yet. But World’s Edge has been vocal about
something they’re not going to do: mess with the formula. “We could explore things internally,”
Creative Director Adam Isgreen says. “But we have such great partners.”
“Forgotten Empires loves the franchise; we love them,” he explains. “We’re not going
to take their experiences away from them, to go in-house.” The same goes for Relic and Tantalus.
Among all the IPs in the Xbox family, Age of Empires may have the blurriest boundaries between
its creators and its community. This unusual dynamic has served the series well for years,
so it makes sense for World’s Edge to keep a good thing going.
World’s Edge may not create games directly, but its mission is the same as every
other Xbox Game Studio: put gamers at the center of world-class gaming experiences.
They just do it a little differently than everyone else.