Age of Empires IV is going through some major changes as we start 2022 with the game’s first update coming soon. Pivoting away from traditional seasons, like summer, spring, winter, and fall, the game is now moving to a season-based numbering release schedule, which means that updates will make sense for those in all corners of the globe now. Curious what updates Age of Empires IV Season One will bring? Keep reading for more.
Age of Empires IV now on a 3-month seasonal update schedule
Age of Empires IV called this update the Spring Update last year, but from here on out in 2022 and beyond it’ll be called Season X (where X is the season number sequentially going up from one.) There’s no exact release date for when Season One will drop, but the team has said that it’s “not too far off” and there will be “plenty of opportunity to preview it in the near future” if you own the game on Steam.
However, we do have some information as to what Season One will hold for Age of Empires IV. There will now be a new content editor in beta and mods support. The content editor is a “robust tool” and the “sky’s the limit” when it comes to modding. Though third-party mods will be supported, there will also be a number of in-house mods and tutorials to get you started.
We’re also getting a 1v1 ranked ladder now, which the team expounds on more in a dedicated post. The feature was previewed back in January but will officially launch in tandem with Season One, whenever that update comes out. This is a unique game mode with tiers and more, though some small tweaks have been made since the preview. Notably, they refined the map pool list and made the tier numbers and images align “more intuitively.” Other updates coming in Season One include hotkey improvements, a Global Build Queue and more lobby tweaks, and MegaRandom.
However, the team’s blog post didn’t stop with Season One, as we now have information on Season Two as well. Of course, Ranked Season Two will be the headliner here, but there will also be fully remappable inputs, a map vote system, player color picker, and more coming sometime in summer.
9to5Toys’ Take
It seems that the AoE team is listening to its community and wants to give players what they’re asking for. The move to numbered seasons makes sense, as that’s how most games these days issue updates. And the actual content that’s coming with 1v1 ranked play and more makes it a compelling game to play if you’ve never dove into the title in the past. I, for one, haven’t played any AoE titles extensively, but might give Age of Empires IV a shot once these updates land.
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