Postmortems from Game Developer

Ensemble Studios’AGE OF EMPIRES II: THE AGE OF KINGS

by matt pritchard

Catching Up

Two years ago in this very column (You can read the original AOE article on page 63.) I told you the story of Ensemble Studios, a scrappy upstart that overcame challenges to create the game AGE OF EMPIRES (AOE). Since its release two years ago in the great real-time strategy (RTS) wars of 1997, approximately three million copies of AOE have been sold worldwide, along with almost a million copes of the RISE OF ROME (ROR) expansion pack. The totals don't give the whole story, though. AOE proved to be a consistent seller, hanging around the top of the PC Data charts, and even re-entered the top ten a year-and-a-half after its release. The demographics of the buyers ...