1. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
  2. News

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

Age of Empires 2 shares "legendarily long" patch notes for enormous new update

Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition continues to plow on over five years on from its launch, still flying the flag for the classic 1999 strategy game. We know that another new DLC is on its way soon, and World's Edge has just revealed that it'll introduce five - yes, five - new civilizations. However, before it arrives, there's a huge new update to come which is billed to be one of the most significant in AoE 2 history. Because of its size and importance, World's Edge has dropped its "legendarily long" patch notes a month or so early.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

Age of Empires 2 owners will now get over $100 worth of DLC for free

All Age of Empires 2 cheats

Age of Empires 2's next DLC is a game-changing trip to ancient Greece

A Sneak Peek at New Content Coming to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition


Last month, we teased that not only would Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition be coming to PlayStation 5, but a new expansion is planned as well. To put a cherry on top, we will also be releasing one of the biggest updates Age II: DE has ever had!

While we continue working on getting all of this incredible content and fixes ready for you, we wanted to provide a preview of our work in progress. Why so early? These patch notes are long – legendarily long – and we wanted to give you an early look to take it all in.

Everything you see outlined and described below is what will come in the next update to Age II: DE. We don’t have an exact date to share for this update just yet, but you can save the date for mid-April!

Now, we know these notes are already HUGE. There is a surprise reveal about the expansion for anyone who makes it to the end. Pay close attention and you will notice a whole bunch of hidden treasures throughout hinting about what’s to come. We hope this has you as excited as us for the future of Age II: DE!

While there are plenty of notable things to look forward to in the notes below, here’s some of the big highlights coming with the next update in mid-April:
  • Bug fixes based on your feedback!
  • New Visuals for Castles, Elite Unique Units, Monks and Monasteries!
  • Technology Tree UI updates!
  • Balance changes!
  • New Maps!
  • New features and content to support:
    • Random Map Scripting
    • Scenario Editor
    • Modding
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]
◆ New Content & Update Notes◆
[hr][/hr]
What's on the Horizon?

Hey Age of Empires Community!

It’s been a minute since we’ve provided some thoughts and teasers toward everything that’s happening with Age II: DE, and the last time we did we were in the middle of launching Chronicles: Battle for Greece – the newest DLC for Age II: DE from our friends at CaptureAge.

If you haven’t played Battle for Greece yet, it’s definitely worth taking a peek at what others are saying, especially if you love Campaign content and historical narrative. We’ve been thrilled to see the reaction from everyone and we’re keeping our eyes on your feedback – thank you so much for joining us on this journey!

But let’s not bury the lead, we’re sure you have some questions right now.

The last time you heard from World’s Edge, we made the surprise announcement that Age II: DE will be coming to PlayStation 5! Or maybe, back to PlayStation? It definitely feels like a full circle moment and we got some chuckles out of the Age of Kings PS2 conversations that popped up. We know you’re curious and want details, but this one needs to wait a bit longer – we’ll have more to say about this very soon!

Today, we’re doing something a little different with our patch notes. Usually, you get these on the same day that an update is being released, but this time we’re providing patch notes in advance. We’re not yet ready to say exactly when this update is dropping, but you can expect to hear from us in mid-April.

For anyone that was wondering when we’d be back with something new for our competitive players, this is our love letter to you. We wanted to give you some time to digest it all and get hyped while we finish up the work on one of our biggest updates ever!

We’re excited to reveal some pretty big surprises in these notes, including an absolutely massive list of new balance changes, bug fixes, feature updates, new maps, scenario editor updates, and a lot more!

We can’t wait to see your reaction to those sweet new Castles and the many other visual updates on their way to all players of Age II: DE, absolutely free, when our next update launches.

We’re forgetting something aren’t we?

During that PlayStation 5 announcement, we also mentioned that there’s an exciting new expansion coming to Age II: DE! We even provided a couple of images to give you an opportunity to sleuth and debate what we’re cooking up. It’s been fun for us to see what everybody is guessing at! We’re not yet ready to share the full details, so keep your eyes peeled for a future announcement with a complete breakdown of everything included in the new expansion.

For those that study today’s patch notes carefully, you’re likely to find some clues. We’re not telling you where this information exists and we’re not doing much to draw any attention to it, but it’s there. It won’t tell you everything, but it’ll provide some entertainment while we wait for a more official roll-out.

Oh, and maybe we can share this too…

The next expansion for Age II: DE will include FIVE brand NEW Civs, all playable in Ranked Multiplayer. Yes, you read that correctly. Five! Is that all the DLC includes? Nope. We’ll be following up soon with more details regarding PlayStation 5, the next DLC, and news on the availability of this exciting update!

We like to end these things by reminding everyone how thankful we are for you – the Age Community – and that it’s our absolute privilege and joy to be able to develop this game and franchise for you! We love it as much as you do, and we’re glad you’re here!

Wololo!

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.

Server Maintenance - Wednesday, February 19



WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, February 19 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 22:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 2-3 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]
[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]
  • Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Wednesday, February 19th, 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 2 and 3 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!

What’s Coming in 2025 for Age of Empires and Age of Mythology


2024 was a year for Age of Empires and Age of Mythology players and —a year shaped by your passion, creativity, and epic moments. Thanks to your dedication, it’s been an incredible year not just for the community, but for the franchise as a whole. Together, we’ve had an incredible year. We kicked things off with the New Year, New Age showcase, crowned champions at Red Bull Wololo: El Reinado, connected with many of you at Gamescom, and celebrated the launches of Age of Mythology: Retold and Age of Empires Mobile. Along the way, we expanded the franchise in new ways and welcomed over 10 million new players—reaching an incredible milestone of 60 million Age of Empires players worldwide.

Our players continue to influence the many ways in which the franchise moves forward. Today we’re thrilled to start 2025 by unveiling what’s ahead. Settle in, because we’ve got a lot to share!

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – Minor Update 133431


Welcome to a minor update for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition focused on a few Xbox stability fixes. 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.

💬 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 133431 ◆
[hr][/hr]
Xbox




[h2]Stability & Performance[/h2]
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when disconnecting from Voice Chat.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur during the intro video.
  • Fixed various crashes related to playing through multiple campaign missions.
[h2]Ongoing...[/h2]


[h2]Investigation[/h2]
As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!
[h2]What’s on the Horizon?[/h2]
[h3]COMING UP…[/h3]
Hey there Community!

It’s been a minute since we’ve provided an idea of what’s coming your way. Since we last teased what’s on the horizon, you got the surprise announcement and launch of Chronicles: Battle for Greece, the newest DLC for Age II: DE developed by CaptureAge. Since then, we’ve been watching everyone play and gathering plenty of feedback, so don’t be surprised to see updates and fixes coming for Battle for Greece in the near future.

Your feedback remains a north star for us and recently you heard about ongoing efforts around pathfinding. This is something that the team is constantly paying attention to, and we’ll often ship fixes related to this system in updates where we also make balance changes or launch other gameplay-centric features. With anything affecting gameplay and especially pathfinding or related areas of code like unit behavior or formations, we’re increasingly cautious about this process. It’s an area where it’s especially easy to create unintended consequences and new bugs, so changes here will happen slowly and over time even if the feedback and conversations happening around them are more immediate and topical. Please stay tuned regarding any updates in this area and please know that we’re definitely at work – we’ll have more to share when we know what kind of changes we can deliver and when, with our priority being to keep your experience as stable and performant as possible.

There’s also the challenge of all of the other things in our calendar 😉

We promised big surprises last year and those surprises are even nearer to being revealed now that we’re in the New Year (how is January already almost over!?) Unfortunately we can’t announce or spoil any of those things here, but you might not need to wait much longer. Watch this space.

Even with big surprises looming, there’s still plenty more that the team is busy with and a pretty exciting set of plans we’re constantly considering. None of this would be possible without this amazing Community that continues to show up and play this game we all love so much, which is something we remain incredibly thankful for. Today’s patch notes are obviously tiny, but we’ll be back pretty soon with more to talk about as our roadmap plays out – we’re excited about what’s waiting for you!

Wololo!
[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.