If you're one of probably many people out there who have been interested in the RTS genre for a while but don't have a PC bulky enough to run most of them, you're in luck as Microsoft has announced that both Age of Empires 2 and the recently released Age of Empires 4 are coming to Xbox consoles next year. Age of Empires has exclusively been a PC franchise, but after 25 years, the series is finally making the leap.Announced in a new blog post on the official Xbox website, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition will launch on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X on January 31, 2023 while Age of Empires 4 will launch at some point later in 2023. The team are apparently working pretty hard to adapt the game so it plays well with a controller, but both games will support keyboard and mouse if playing an RTS with a controller isn't your thing.For those that want to make the switch to Xbox but want to keep playing with their pals on PC, never fear, as the Xbox versions of Age of Empires 2 and Age of Empires 4 will also support cross play, allowing you to seamlessly play with friends on different systems. They'll also be added to Xbox Cloud Gaming if you want to raise some castles on the go.
Microsoft was a little more reserved when it came to Age of Empires 4, but it does let fans know that it will come with all the previously mentioned features. Just like with all Xbox published titles, both Age of Empires game will launch via Xbox Game Pass, giving you an excellent set of RTS games to play for essentially free.