Microsoft Acquires Rights to Rise of Nations

Microsoft Studios has announced the acquisition of the rights to Rise of Nations, one of the most popular strategy sagas on PC that was by Big Huge Games, at the same time that it presented a remastering that will go on sale this year.

But on top of that Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Studios and the Xbox division, wrote two tweets yesterday suggesting that they weren't just going to just re-release the original game It seems that the fans of the saga are in luck, and that it will see the light again 11 years after the original installment came out.

Remember that THQ made the decision to sell Big Huge Games to 38Studios in 2009. Finally, in 2012, all the workers of 38Studios were fired and the company closed, leaving a question mark about the future of its franchises.

The future of Rise of Nations… on Xbox One?

As I was saying before, Phil Spencer was yesterday answering some questions that he was asked on Twitter about the acquisition of Rise of Nations. From his answers, everything seems to indicate thatthe announced remastering is not the only thing they have in mind .

In the first Tweet, a user asks why Microsoft buys the rights to this saga, and decides to sell the remaster exclusively on Steam. The answer is thatthey have acquired the series for the future(which he also says in the second), and that Steam is a good place to sell games for Windows .

"But on top of this, Microsoft has launched a job offer claiming to be building a team that will develop a new AAA title for an already established and well-loved strategy game franchise. "

And as if the indications weren't enough, we also have a Tweet from Phil Spencer on May 17, in which he assures that this generation will the genre will re-emerge on consoles of real-time strategy games.

This could mean the existence of a Rise of Nations installment for the new generation of consoles, supposedly Xbox One. Can you imagine the result of developing a installment of this saga for said console?

Rise of Nations: Extended Edition

On the other hand, we have the news of the existence of Rise of Nations: Extended Edition, which is a remastering of the original installment which includes the Thrones and Patriots expansion.It will go on sale in June of this year on Steam, at a price of €15.99.

What's new in this edition starts with the graphical improvements, just as you'd expect from a remaster. Visual effects, water detail level, and entire textures have been revised.

In addition, the full screen anti-aliasing option is now available, and the game features full integration with Steamworks This allows enjoy many advantages offered by its API, being both new features and online security measures.

The multiplayer mode has been improved although there are no more details, and it has been decided to establish a game system through ranks. The well-known ELO scoring system is used, applied to games like League of Legends (until recently in qualifiers) or World of Warcraft (index in arenas, although another system is currently used).

A system of achievements, the existence of cards to be able to exchange and collect, and the possibility of saving our data in the cloud, are other novelties that this remastering integrates.

And finally, for those who like to broadcast their games through Twitch.tv, full integration with this platform is added. This will allow you to broadcast the games from the game itself, without the need for external software.

Via | WPCentral