Despite initially revealing that just one DLC expansion would hit Age of Empires 4 in 2025, World’s Edge has pulled a surprise from its sleeve. In a new blog post celebrating a huge new player milestone for the Age of Empires franchise and teeing up the year ahead, it’s now been confirmed that two Age of Empires 4 DLCs are in the works, with the first arriving in the spring.
Last year was a pretty big one for the strategy game series. A mobile version of Age of Empires dropped, the brilliant remake of Age of Mythology launched, and AoE 2 received a pair of enjoyable expansions. In 2025, it’ll be Age of Empires 4’s turn to get a double dose of DLC, and they will both be “expanding upon concepts we’ve introduced previously” with a particular focus on variant civilizations.
“Variant civilizations allow us to capture diverse strategic tactics and military forces afforded to various historical bodies, and we’ve got some very exciting ones in development, one of which we’ve heard the community’s been wanting since the release of The Sultans Ascend,” World’s Edge’s studio head Michael Mann says. “Not only are we changing up strategic gameplay with these variants, but we’re also spending time on the fine details: we’re introducing a large set of new units and buildings and, in some cases, updating the overall visuals of many shared units and buildings to assist with better readability and make sure your experience feels fresh!”
The DLCs will also add new game modes that “focus on shorter and repeatable experiences.”
World’s Edge has now revealed the name of the first DLC that will drop in 2025, Knights of Cross and Rose. Mann says that players will “lead two well-known armies inspired by history” and be blessed with a new solo game mode “that will challenge even the most skilled strategists.”
Age of Empires 4’s Knights of Cross and Rose DLC will arrive in spring 2025, according to World’s Edge. The following DLC will arrive at some point later in the year. You can read the full blog post, which also reveals more details about Age of Mythology Retold’s first expansion alongside other exciting franchise news, here.
The announcement of another new DLC for Age of Empires 4 is a slightly surprising one. First, it shows an unexpected increase in the speed with which DLC is arriving. It took approximately two years after launch for The Sultans Ascend, its first expansion, to arrive in 2023, and with a single DLC initially announced for 2025, it seemed that World’s Edge had established a rough cadence of one DLC every couple of years. That’s all gone out the window now, though, seeing as two new DLCs will arrive before 2025 wraps.
Second, this news comes just a week after World’s Edge revealed it has scrapped an upcoming DLC for Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition, admitting that its initial reveal “was premature” and that no content had been built for it at the time. I doubt that this extra Age of Empires 4 DLC came as a result of this, but it does suggest that World’s Edge is prioritzing AoE 4 over anything AoE 3 related.
If you want to find more challenging experiences like Age of Empires, head on over to our list of the best RTS games. To see what else might clash with the arrival of AoE 4’s new DLCs, take a look at our upcoming PC games guide instead.
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