Microsoft’s Age of Empires game to be developed for iPhones and Android devices
25 Jun 2013
A version of Microsoft's Age of Empires game franchise would be developed for iPhones and Android devices, in what would be the first instance of an official Microsoft title release for the mobile platforms, PC World reported citing Japans' Nikkei newspaper.
The initial title developed in English by Japanese developer KLab would be released globally, with a Windows Phone version. Additional languages would be made available later. According to the companies, the new game would come with a mobile social component, a strength of KLab.
Android and iOS compete with Microsoft's own Windows Phone mobile operating system, which had only a 3-per cent share of subscribers in the US, according to data firm ComScore.
Klab would license various titles from Microsoft's PC and console library and port them to mobile versions, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, speculating that the deal would pressure Sony and Nintendo to follow suit with their own titles.
According to the newspaper, the Age of Empires mobile version would be released by March 2014 as a ''freemium'' game, with free game play but charges for additional in-game items and services.
Meanwhile, Sony has been offering specialised versions of game titles from its own line-up and third-party developers as part of its ''PlayStation Mobile'' platform. The company also ran its own app store that only worked with approved handsets. The company was trying to lure programmers with a low-cost development kit.
According to Nintendo it wanted its games to work with mobile phones, but did not want to offer its valuable Super Mario games outside of its own stable of consoles.
Microsoft's Age of Empires series included seven games and three spin-off titles, and had sold 22 million titles globally. According to Klab, various versions had been under development for 15 years.
The software giant offered PC, online, and Xbox versions of the game, with a version ported for the Nintendo DS handheld. Microsoft last week said it had chosen Canadian developer SkyBox Labs to roll out changes to the latest release from the franchise, Age of Empires II: HD.