Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

Welcome to an exciting update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This patch brings bug fixes, balance changes, plus paves the road for the Empire Wars 1v1 ladder reset that will become the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium ladder from January 2nd to 18th, 2026. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team
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        ◆ Update 162286 ◆

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[h2]Build Spotlight[/h2]


[h3]Temporary Reset of Empire Wars 1v1 Ladder During Red Bull Wololo: Londinium[/h3]
This patch is mainly paving the road for the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Empire Wars 1v1 ladder that will become the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium ladder from January 2nd to 18th, 2026, 17:00 UTC. The rating will be reset, and players may compete for a slot in the main event. The top four players advance into the main event, while 5th-12th place finishers gain an advantage for the last-chance qualifier.

Why is the ladder being temporarily reset?
To ensure an even playing field for all competitors, the leaderboard has to be temporarily reset. The four with the highest ELO rating achieved on the leaderboard on January 18th, at 17:00 UTC, will be directly invited to the Red Bull Wololo: Londinium event taking place in London, UK.

How does this affect you?
Your experience will remain the same; however, you may find that your EW 1v1 rating will require 10 games before being shown on the leaderboard. With this change, you will be able to experience what it’s like to play on the settings and maps of one of the biggest tournaments for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. The ladder holds no restrictions—anyone is free to play on the ladder whether they intend to participate in the tournament or not.

Please be aware, there is a controller-only ladder visible for Red Bull Wololo: Londinium for those playing on Xbox and PS5 consoles. However, this ladder will not be eligible for qualification. Remember to enable cross-play, as qualification will only be available to those on the cross-play-enabled ladder.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Monday, December 1 @ 2:00pm PT / 5:00pm ET / 22:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store / Xbox / PlayStation 5)
  
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires IV (Steam / Microsoft Store / Xbox / PlayStation 5)
  

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

• Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Monday, December 1st, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:

• Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
  
  
• Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
  
  
• DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.

To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.

Thank you for your patience!

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Welcome to a small update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! Today’s patch addresses various fixes focused on polishing the Alexander the Great campaign, including tooltips and UI improvements, lobby and matchmaking fixes for Chronicles civilizations, plus audio and narration, and more. Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team
[hr][/hr]

       ◆ Minor Update 160062 ◆

[hr][/hr]

[h2]Game[/h2]


[h3]Stability & Performance[/h3]

• Fixed a crash that could occur when opening older save files due to the radial menu initializing.
  
• Fixed a crash when launching Chronicles: Alexander the Great campaign on the Microsoft Store platform.
  
• Fixed a crash when starting Prithviraj 3, ‘Hand of a Princess,’ on Hard difficulty that occurred immediately after loading into gameplay.

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where civilization details would not appear when hovering over civs in the Skirmish Civilization Selection screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where civilization icons could persist for removed AI players in Skirmish after changing the civilization set.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player icon progress could reset after restarting the game, causing unlocked 10-win icons to be lost.
  
• With Extended Stats setting on, fixed an issue where the Build Queue would overlap with the Nearby Enhancement Count icon on the Achaemenid Town Center and Georgian Fortified Church.
  
• Fixed an issue where using the arrow keys in certain text boxes could cause the UI to become unresponsive.

[h3]Xbox[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where menu narration on consoles failed to announce required button prompts across multiple menus, impacting accessibility.
  
• Fixed a hotkey / input related crash affecting Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X players.

[h3]PlayStation[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where menu narration on consoles failed to announce required button prompts across multiple menus, impacting accessibility.
  
• Fixed a memory related crash affecting PS5 users.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

Welcome to an exciting update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition! This patch addresses stability and performance issues, bug fixes, and some minor balance changes! Be sure to dig down into the post below to get all of the smaller details before hopping in-game and checking them out firsthand.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thank you again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!

—The Age of Empires Team
[hr][/hr]

        ◆ Update 158041 ◆

[hr][/hr]

[h2]Game[/h2]


[h3]Stability & Performance[/h3]

• Fixed a memory management crash related to building placement in Co-op.
  
• Fixed a crash occurring on the Xbox One platform.
  
• Fixed a crash on the loading screen when loading into a game on the Microsoft Store platform.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur when a player accepts a multiplayer lobby invite while also loading into a campaign level.
  
• Fixed a crash in Skirmish and Custom Multiplayer Lobbies caused by selecting AI players to mirror using the Chronicles Civilization Set.
  
• Optimized cutscenes for the Chronicles DLC series on consoles, reducing download sizes.

[h3]Achievements[/h3]

• The ‘Blockade Breaker’ Achievement now references the correct mission name: “Destroy both naval blockades in ‘Divine Salamis’.”
  
• The ‘Crisis Management’ Achievement now references the correct mission name: “Complete ‘The Fruits of Empire’ without demanding medium or high tribute.”
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from getting the ‘Promachos’ Achievement after killing 10 enemy units with a Spartan Polemarch.

[h3]Graphics[/h3]

• Fixed an issue which had the wrong animation play for some units during Patrol, Attack-Move and following Waypoints.
  
• Fixed an issue which had herdable chickens disappear in the Fog of War.

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• Numerous small menu narrator fixes to help with accessibility.

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Fixed an issue making Fire Lancers and Jian Swordsmen to count as two units in the units counter of the HUD when the “Military Mode” map was selected.
  
• Fixed an incorrect Loom technology Tooltip text.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing the “Remaining Population Alert” from playing under some circumstances.
  
• Updated some Villagers tooltips regarding new huntable animals behavior.
  
• Numerous small fixes to improve menu visuals for Accessibility.
  
• Fixed an issue on PS5 that prevented a player from moving the cursor / selector when the Browse Mods tab and Player Profile screen were visible.

[h3]Hotkeys[/h3]

• Allow “Auto Scout” hotkey to work when the unit is moving and the “Stop” UI button is visible.

[h3]Xbox[/h3]

• Fixed an issue that forced players out of gameplay when the controller was willingly turned off from the power options.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing audio from playing when players downloaded different audio Language Packs.
  
• Fixed a number of small memory leaks.

[h3]PlayStation[/h3]

• Mitigated some desync occurrences in Crossplay Multiplayer Games.
  
• Fixed an issue where loading an old save of the William Wallace campaign would crash the game.
  
• Fix for some PlayStation players not being able to connect to multiplayer.
  
• Fixes for small graphical errors that could appear in the William Wallace Campaign if launched from PlayGo.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.