Microsoft’s revered real-time strategy series Age of Empires has had a pretty strange existence on mobile so far. It was more than two years ago that rumors surfaced that Microsoft was planning on bringing some of their big-time gaming IPs to mobile devices, including Age of Empires. In April of last year that Age of Empires mobile game was officially announced as Age of Empires: World Domination, which was developed by KLab Games in conjunction with Microsoft and planned for release that summer.
Well, that never ended up happening, but then just this past May Microsoft soft-launched Age of Empires: Castle Siege (Free) on iOS, a game that had been on the Windows platform for some time and followed similar base-building-and-attacking formula as mega-hit Clash of Clans (Free). Castle Siege was actually very well-received both in its soft-launch phase and following its worldwide release in July. I actually kind of figured that it was the Age of Empires game Microsoft had planned for mobile, and that World Domination had fallen to the wayside, but if today’s soft-launch is any indication we haven’t quite seen the last of Age of Empires: World Domination.
You know the expression “It’s all Greek to me"? That’s how I feel when I look at games like this, except “It’s all Clash of Clans to me!" Now, not being an expert in real-time strategy games or Clash of Clans, I will say that Castle Siege seemed to put some pretty major twists in the formula to differentiate itself, and World Domination does appear to hew more closely to its traditional real-time strategy roots. Still it’s hard for a laymen like me to see what the difference is between all these games. The message from Microsoft regarding World Domination is also kind of confusing. It appears as if this game is actually launching today according to the official website, and in fact it’s also out on the Google Play Store as I type this. However, on the iOS side it appears to only be in the Singapore and Philippines App Stores currently, and a footnote on the game’s Facebook page does state the game is “Only available in specific countries".
Anyway, I suppose in time we’ll find out what the deal is with Age of Empires: World Dominations, but in the meantime if you have access to Singapore or Philippines App Store accounts you can give the game a download using the link below, and you can check out early impressions from players in our forums.
International App Store Link: Age of Empires: World Domination, Free (Universal)
