A job listing online has sparked rumors that the Age of Empires franchise could be following recent industry trends by moving to Unreal Engine 5 going forward. Epic’s UE5 has become something of an industry standard of late, with many developers choosing to move away from proprietary engines in favor of it. Now, it appears that Age of Empires could take the same route.
Looking at the history of every Age of Empires game is interesting. The first two titles in the series used the Genie Engine, while Age of Empires 3 would use the BANG! engine, a proprietary engine created by Ensemble Studios. This would also be used for Age of Mythology and Age of Empires online. The most recent game in the series, Age of Empires 4, used Essence Engine 5.0, yet another proprietary engine from Relic Entertainment. Old versions of the engine were used for games like Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2.
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A job listing for a Principal Build Lead Engineer at Age of Empires support studio World’s Edge has sparked some rumors about a potential move to Unreal Engine 5 for the franchise going forward. Among the requirements is “6+ years of professional experience in AAA scale Unreal Engine game development,” and one of the preferred qualifications is a “Deep understanding of Unreal Engine’s build pipeline and asset management systems.” Given World’s Edge exists solely (so far) to work on Age of Empires, it’s not a stretch to think that one of the best action RTS franchises will use UE5 going forward. Right now, though, this remains a rumor.
Job Listing Hints at Age of Empires Move to Unreal Engine 5
At the moment, it seems as though there’s a big industry shift towards Unreal Engine 5. Some believe this is a bad thing, as it can give games a similar feeling. However, this is mitigated by solid art design to distinguish one game from another. Having one engine so widely used means studios can hire individuals already familiar with the technology, and get them working on creative things quicker, rather than having to bring them up to scratch on in-house engine details for a period. The biggest franchise to make the move to Unreal Engine 5 so far is Halo, which last month revealed it will be using the engine for all its future titles. Don’t expect UE5 to go anywhere anytime soon.
A move to Unreal Engine 5 isn’t the only rumor floating around about the future of the Age of Empires franchise at the moment. It was recently rumored that Age of Empires could come to PlayStation, which would be a slight surprise given Microsoft owns it. Stranger things have happened, though. Gamers will have to wait and see if any of these interesting rumors come to fruition in the future.
