Microsoft bought them, and shut them down not long after for insufficient profits. Sigh.
Age of Empires IV is being made now since they noticed there's demand, but the studio they chose is a well-known clown collective. Hopes are not high.
I still play them to this day despite having spent thousands and thousands of hours on both, to the extent that I know them inside out, and yet they've never stopped being fun.
https://www.npr.org/2017/09/05/547367445/-blood-sweat-and-pi...
...which I coincidentally listened to via Audible today. There’s a lot more to the story than, “...shut them down... for insufficient profits.” They wanted to branch out from the RTS genre, prototyped a bunch of different ideas, but didn’t really get far enough (or enough traction with MSFT, which wrote their checks) to ship them. Microsoft was wary of them launching new IP, so tasked them with making Halo Wars, which was an RTS for consoles. This was a drastically different undertaking than RTS-for-PCs due to controllers (instead of keyboards + mice), and they all got burned out working on it after many years. Microsoft shut them down after Halo Wars shipped.
They are even having a $60k tourney (I think sponsored by MS).
It is still a pretty big and active community and easy to get a game.
Plus, there have been a bunch of great DLCs in the past few years
Maybe they choose a random studio because were was just trying to appease Gates' whims?
How bad is this "clown collective"?
Do you just use it for Age of Empires?
Have you heard of the Pyra[0]?
It's nearing completion, hardware should be final at this point. Just need the software to get a good run up.
I hadn't heard of the Pyra, but as with all these custom-designed open devices... they are cool, but the cost is always so much higher than any comparable commercial product you could buy. I guess RMS can afford one, but I can't.
I've got a bit of interest in the handheld world, but haven't pulled the trigger on a Pyra (not a fan of pre-orders).
Also, what does RMS stand for?