Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game and the first project of Ensemble Studios. It was announced at E3 in June 1996 and published by Microsoft for Windows on 13 October 1997 in North America. Players lead one of 12 civilizations through four ages: Stone, Tool, Bronze and Iron.
About 25 people built the game in roughly two and a half years, and its drawing core used about 13,000 lines of hand-written x86 assembly code. It was one of the first RTS games with walls strong enough to serve as a real defense. Within four months it was released in 55 countries, and through January 1998 it was the top-selling computer strategy title in the US, France, Germany and the UK.
The Rise of Rome expansion followed on 22 October 1998. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition came out on 20 February 2018 on the Windows Store and on Steam on 19 August 2019.1
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Age of EmpiresJapanese Wikipedia and PCGamingWiki give 15 October 1997. | Windows | Oct 13, 1997 | Microsoft | 1 |
| NA | Age of EmpiresMac OS (Classic). | Mac | Jul 1, 1999 | — | 2 |
| EU | Age of EmpiresUK date; TCRF gives 2 February 1998 for the EU. | Windows | Oct 23, 1997 | Microsoft | 1 |
| WW | Age of Empires: The Rise of RomeExpansion; Japanese title マイクロソフト エイジオブエンパイア 拡張パック:ライズ オブ ローマ. | Windows | Oct 22, 1998 | Microsoft | 1 |
| WW | Age of Empires: Definitive EditionInitially exclusive to the Windows Store. | Windows | Feb 20, 2018 | Microsoft Studios | 1 |
| WW | Age of Empires: Definitive EditionSteam release with cross-play with the Windows Store. | Windows | Aug 19, 2019 | Xbox Game Studios | 3 |
Also known as: AoE WW4Dawn of Man WW1Age of Empires: Gold Edition WW1Age of Empires: Definitive Edition WW1
Box art by region
NA Age of Empires
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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ContentThe Rise of Rome
The Rise of Rome adds the Romans, Palmyrans, Macedonians and Carthaginians, five new units, four random map types and a larger map size.1
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GameplayThe Rise of Rome
The expansion also brings unit queuing, double-click selection of all units of one type and a population limit above 50 in multiplayer, and new music replaces the original score.1
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Bug fixv1.0av1.0c
Patch 1.0a fixed unit bumping and Town Center exploits; 1.0c added an idle-villager hotkey, rebalanced Shang and Phoenician villagers and fixed several multiplayer bugs.5
Translations
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Spanish Official
Xbox Game Studios2019Windows · Definitive EditionReleased · complete
The Definitive Edition on Steam offers Spanish (Spain) and Latin American Spanish with full audio.3
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Japanese Official
Xbox Game Studios2019Windows · Definitive EditionReleased · complete
The Definitive Edition on Steam offers Japanese with full audio.3
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Russian Official
Xbox Game Studios2019Windows · Definitive EditionReleased · partial
The Definitive Edition on Steam includes Russian text without Russian voice-over.3
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
2018 remaster for Windows, includes The Rise of Rome content
Checked: 2026-10-133store.steampowered.com
How to run it today
The Definitive Edition runs natively on modern Windows. For the 1997 original, PCGamingWiki recommends the unofficial UPatch, which fixes color problems and save corruption and adds widescreen support; the original needs its disc in the drive.
- Age of Empires on PCGamingWiki pcgamingwiki.com
Reception
Metacritic 83/100. About 3 million copies were sold by 2000, grossing $120 million. The 2018 Definitive Edition scored 69/100 on Metacritic.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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