Age of Empires IV features two new launch civilizations, a newly revealed campaign, naval combat, and Joan of Arc.

The teams at both Relic and World's Edge have shared that players will have the choice of the English, Mongols, Chinese and Delhi Sultanate at launch, and two more civilizations have been revealed: the Abbasid Dynasty and the French.

The Abbasid Dynasty's focus on technology, powered by their unique landmark, the House of Wisdom, will allow players to choose unique upgrade opportunities. Their unique units include Camel Archers and Riders.

The French were revealed alongside the 100 Years War campaign, allowing players to place themselves in the battles fought between the English and French in the 14th and 15th centuries. The French thrive in trade, with the Chamber of Commerce and Royal Institute landmarks helping strengthen a player's late game. Royal Knights are one of the civilization's special units with a fearsome charge ability.

Making a heroic appearance in the trailer is French heroine and icon Joan of Arc. Teenage Joan rallied her country and led armies into battle against the occupying English.

Taking the battle to the water adds a whole new dimension to player strategy and adds new meaning to "sink or swim"!

With updated controls, intuitive UI and a fresh approach to the campaign, Age of Empires IV is the most accessible Age of Empires game yet while taking everything fans love about the franchise to the next level.

Current and future University of Arizona and Arizona Online students can now earn credit toward their college degrees when complete special educational content from Age of Empires IV. The University of Arizona Illuminated History Experience course was developed via a collaboration between the University of Arizona and teams at Microsoft and Relic Entertainment, and meant to provide even further historical context to the already historically-rich game.

Landing soon, the first major update of 2022 brings Ranked Seasons, the Content Editor beta (and Mods!), Seasonal Events, Major Balance changes, as well as a ton of quality-of-life changes to Age of Empires IV!

Customize your battle with the Content Editor

In the coming days, we’ll be diving deeper into the newest tool that will change how you do battle in Age of Empires IV – the Content Editor. The Age of Empires IV Content Editor (Beta)will be your one-stop shop for custom play. Want to create your own highly specialized map? Want to play with a French Knight that’s overpowered to the nth degree? With this tool at your fingertips, you get the complete say on how to play.  

We’ll be taking a closer look at some of the internally made mods by the dev team, as well as some of the more specific features of the Content Editor (Beta), along with helpful tips on how to start making your very own mod.

All about Seasons

Seasons in Age of Empires IV consists of new content and rewards to progress towards and unlock over a set period of time. This includes both the Ranked Seasons for those who want to take on the challenge to climb the competitive ladder, and Seasonal Events where you can unlock rewards by completing in-game challenges.  

We’ll be previewing these soon, including what kind of challenges and rewards will be available when the update goes live! 

Balance & Game Updates

With the Season One Update, it’ll come with a whole host of balance and quality-of-life changes, including global build queue, hotkey improvements, and more. Stay tuned for the entire release notes, as they’ll go live when the update goes live later next week. 

That’s not all – there’s also two additions to the Age of Empires IV line-up including a brand-new Advanced Combat Art of War challenge, aimed at preparing you for more complex combat scenarios, as well as the new MegaRandom map.  

Key Features:

• Stunning 4K visual fidelity
• Eight diverse civilizations, including the Mongols and Chinese, along with naval gameplay support
• Four campaigns with thirty-five missions spanning 500 years of history
• Cooperate or spectate with up to seven of your friends in PVP and PVE multiplayer modes
• Best-in-class game and platform services, including a World Editor in early 2022, tutorials and a story mode to help onboard new RTS players

Pre-orders are open. A Digital Deluxe Edition is available on Steam; it includes a digital copy of the game's epic soundtrack as well as other exclusive in-game items. Anyone who pre-orders Age of Empires IV will receive the upcoming DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Dawn of the Dukes, when it launches in August.

Age of Empires IV is available on PC (Steam) for $59.99.