Age of Empires 4 won't have microtransactions according to creative director

Microsoft's XO19 event in London was focused on Xbox announcements, but it did include our first look at Age of Empires 4 gameplay. Creative director Adam Isgreen was also on hand to clarify some details, including the fact that it won't have microtransations or in-app purchases.

"The idea of microtransactions in a real-time strategy game isn't a thing," he said, as reported by PCGamesN. "DLC, expansions – all of that is things that we're going to be exploring for Age 4."

While Age of Empires 4 is the work of Relic, Isgreen confirmed that World's Edge will be the studio behind expansions not only for this, but also the other Age of Empires games like the brand new Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. Although don't expect any more civilizations for that one, since it's already got 35. "Our pro players are even like, please don't add more civilisations, please do other things," Isgreen said, before suggesting that they'd be consulting with the community to see what they wanted to see more of, like "game modes" for instance.

Here's everything we know about Age of Empires 4.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.