Summary
- The Korean faction in The Conquerors expansion for Age of Empires 2 was added based on StarCraft’s success in Korea.
- Microsoft’s insistence on the Korean faction caused historical inaccuracies and even a bit of political tension.
- I still don’t understand the logic.
It’s quite unbelievable how well Age of Empires 2 is doing, thanks to its Definitive Edition. There’s no doubt about the popularity of the RTS when it first launched, but there has been a lull in the genre for a very long time. The remaster, while not topping charts, has done a great job in keeping the legacy title relevant.
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During the reign of the original game, The Conquerors expansion introduced several new factions. However, it seems that one particular faction was introduced for a rather silly reason. Sandy Petersen, who was a designer on the original game, revealed that the Korean faction was forced upon them because StarCraft performed very well there.
It’s Basic Logic
In a Twitter thread (thanks, Windows Central), Petersen explained that Microsoft was pretty adamant on having a Korean faction in the game because StarCraft sold over three million copies. What’s the connection? Even Petersen doesn’t know.
“The project went ahead extremely well. We were almost completely finished, 5 weeks ahead of schedule as of January 2000. I was excited to move onto Age of Empires 3,” he explained. “Then Microsoft called and we had an important conference call.”
The suits asked the team to introduce a Korean faction for The Conquerers. However, the team was hesitant to do so because Koreans weren’t historically conquerors. At least not when compared to the other civilizations in the expansion. However, Microsoft’s reasoning was, “Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea.”
“Here was my counter-argument, which seemed pretty valid to me. ‘Starcraft doesn’t have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ.'” To which Microsoft reiterated, “But … Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea.” Petersen eventually gave in, saying, “I could see where this was going. Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it’s clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence.”
He even explained that they were given no time to flesh out the new civilization, leading to a few historical inaccuracies which caused quite a stir in Korea. One Microsoft official was allegedly taken into police custody as well. “And in the end, we didn’t sell 3 million copies of Age of Empires 2 in Korea after all,” he concluded.
Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition
- Released
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November 14, 2019
- ESRB
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