Age of Empires 4 2022 roadmap has been revealed, starting with major Season 1 update

What you need to know

• Age of Empires 4 is a real-time strategy game from Relic Entertainment, World's Edge, and Xbox Game Studios.
• The game launched to critical and player acclaim, and is continuing to improve over time with post-launch updates.
• On Thursday, the team released the 2022 roadmap for AoE 4, detailing what's coming to the game in the next few months.
• Quarterly "Season" updates will feature major new content additions and improvements, while smaller patch updates will arrive monthly.

Age of Empires 4 is already a fantastic real-time strategy game with slick gameplay and deep layers of strategy. Developed in tangent between Relic Entertainment and World's Edge, and published by Xbox Game Studios, AoE 4 continues to the legendary franchise and released with critical acclaim last year. Since then, the Age of Empires 4 team has continued to improve their craft.

On Thursday, Relic Entertainment and World's Edge revealed the 2022 roadmap for Age of Empires 4, which details the team's plans for the first half of the year and beyond. Age of Empires 4 players have a lot about which to be excited, including major content additions and long-awaited quality-of-life improvements and enhancements. To summarize, AoE 4 will enjoy quarterly "Seasons" updates that feature larger changes and features, while monthly patches and bug fixes will keep things polished and stable.

Here's what to expect for Age of Empires 4 over the next few months:

• Season 1: The first major update of 2022 coming in the near future is Season 1, which will include a host of new features for Age of Empires 4, including:
  • Content Editor (Beta) and mod support to allow community creators to build new content for AoE 4, as well as in-house created mods
  • The first Ranked Ladder that pits players against other players
  • Improvements to control binding and hotkeys
  • A new Art of War challenge
  • Various quality-of-life improvements like a Global Build Queue, civilization randomizer, campaign tuning, balancing changes, and more
• Season 2: While not as set in stone as Season 1, Season 2 will nonetheless arrive approximately three months after its predecessor with a fresh batch of new features, including:
  • Ranked Ladder Season 2
  • Fully remappable controls and inputs
  • Map vote system, which lets players vote on the next map to appear in online matches
  • Player color picker, which lets players customize their team colors and more
• Future updates. The Age of Empires 4 team also revealed some of their future plans for improvements, including:
  • Observer mode improvements
  • The addition of taunts, cheats, and waypoint indicators
• Public Update Preview. Players interested in submitting feedback on upcoming updates before they're released, and play Age of Empires 4 on Steam, will soon be able to join a Public Update Preview. The AoE 4 team will reveal more details in the near future.

Age of Empires 4 already sets the bar for real-time strategy games, but Relic Entertainment and World's Edge are hardly resting on their laurels. Various improvements and updates are heading to one of the best PC games you can play, including regular injections of fresh content and the results of ongoing community feedback and support. Age of Empires 4 is available now on Steam, the Microsoft Store, and through PC Game Pass.