Microsoft seeking dev to make game in “well-loved” strategy series

Age of Empires III

Microsoft may be in the process of reviving one of its strategy game series, if a new job listing can be believed.

The job opening is for an engineering position and was published on April 28, as discovered by CVG. The description says Microsoft Studios is seeking someone “to help build and lead the team for a new AAA title within an established and well-loved strategy game franchise.”

Additional details regarding what project the prospective employee would be working on were not provided, but that short sentence suggests multiple possibilities.

Age of Empires immediately springs to mind as Microsoft’s biggest strategy game series. The real-time-strategy series was last seen just last year, when an HD remake of Age of Empires II was released on PC. Prior to that, Microsoft released Age of Empires Online, a hybrid between RTS games and MMOs that is no longer being supported and will be taken offline this summer.

Unlike the earlier games in the series, Online was not developed by Ensemble Studios, which was shut down in 2009. Just prior to being closed, Ensemble developed Halo strategy game Halo Wars, which seems like another possible candidate for what Microsoft could be cooking up a sequel to. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer told IGN earlier this year that he thought the original Halo Wars was fun and expressed interest in seeing a new one. He also suggested it was possible that such a game could be developed internally due to there not being many “great RTS developers out there anymore.”

The Rise of Nations series, developed by Big Huge Games (which, like Ensemble, is now defunct), is another strategy game series Microsoft has been involved with in the past, albeit one with less name recognition than Age of Empires. When Big Huge’s owner, 38 Studios, went out of business, the rights to Rise of Nations were auctioned off to an unknown party, making it unlikely that it is the series Microsoft is now working on.

Of the strategy game series in Microsoft’s history, which one are you hoping is brought back? Let us know in the comments below.

Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX
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