Games as big as Age of Empires take quite a bit of running maintenance to keep them going. World’s Edge, the studio in charge of Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition along with Xbox Games Studios, announced an upcoming maintenance today.
This maintenance is expected to bring the online servers down on May 13th as the team works to migrate database servers. Thankfully, the downtime is only anticipated to last an hour or two, beginning at 4:00 PM EST.
For those that also play Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, the first in the series of recent remakes, this maintenance will apply as well. Both the first and second titles are going to have their online servers taken down, so plan accordingly!
During the maintenance, players will still be able to do any sort of offline content that they wish, as these features are not expected to be affected in any way. The maintenance and downtime is only set to impact the online servers.
The primary reason for this maintenance is to transfer the databases for the Definitive Edition titles to higher capacity servers. By doing so, the team hopes to head off any issues that may arise in the future ahead of time.
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition are the only titles in the franchise that are expected to be affected. If you’re a stickler to the classic versions or Age of Empires 3, you don’t have anything to worry about.
Age of Empires has seen a great surge in popularity in the last few months for a variety of reasons. The primary cause has been the resounding success of the most recent installment, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.
Additionally, a remaster of Age of Empires 3 is headed down the pipeline, which has received a great amount of hype not only on its own merit but because of how well the second’s remaster has gone.
Finally, the team also recently announced Age of Empires 4, the first new title in the franchise in quite some time. With another game waiting to be added to the legendary RTS franchise, it’s a great time for fans to hop into the series.
Currently, however, we have no set release date either for Age of Empires 4 or Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition. While the fourth title hasn’t been ruled out for a 2020 release date, it seems increasingly unlikely due to the complications so many manufacturers have faced over the COVID-19 pandemic.
