14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has long been criticized for its inability to ensure the long-term future of major strategy franchises like Age of Empires, but it seems that the company is aiming to remedy that issue in the coming years by creating an entirely new studio, called Decisive Games, which is focused on the genre and is at the moment working on one of the most beloved series from the past.
The information comes from a job announcement on the official career site, which aims to recruit a senior software engineer to the new team.
Decisive Games will operate under leadership from the Microsoft Game Studios.
The announcement explains that the team “is building a studio that will bring the next installment in a beloved strategy game franchise to the next generation of gamers around the world. This is a highly-collaborative, agile team, with a play-centric approach to game development.”
The Microsoft description also makes it clear that the coming video game will have a multiplayer component that will involve solid mechanics for both matchmaking and grouping.
Nowhere in the job ad does the company name the franchise that Decisive Games is set to work on or offer any clues about it.
Microsoft has announced a future shift towards the PC
The job ad also fails to make clear on what platform the new game will be launched.
This has raised hope among fans that the company is aiming to revive the major Age of Empires series and that it will create a major PC-based title that will signal its recently announced shift back to the platform.
Of course, it is also possible that Microsoft is looking to create another title for the Xbox One, trying to find a way to port classic strategy mechanics to its home console.
At the moment, the Age of Empire franchise lives on via an Online title that has failed to satisfy long-term fans of the franchise and has been criticized for its mechanics.
Microsoft will probably only offer more details about its new strategy title later in the year, possibly at the E3 2015 event.
