Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition's curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game's history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel's original designers.
That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake. As Petersen explained in a lengthy thread on X (via Windows Central), he was assigned to design the sequel's first expansion pack, The Conquerors. As was the case for the original game's expansion, Rise of Rome, Petersen opted to include four playable civs, the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans.
"The project went ahead extremely well. We were almost completely finished, 5 weeks ahead of schedule as of January 2000," Petersen recalls. "I was excited to move onto Age of Empires 3. Then Microsoft called and we had an important conference call."
According to Petersen, Microsoft urged him to add a fifth faction to the expansion, the Koreans. Petersen pointed out that Korea is not known for its history of conquest. "Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they're cool, they don't fit the Conquerors theme."
In Peterson's recollection, Microsoft then argued that "StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea". To this, Peterson pointed out, "StarCraft doesn't have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ." Microsoft then reiterated the 3 million figure, at which point Petersen relented. "Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it's clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence."
Ensemble apparently "crammed" in the Koreans during the final leg of development, because "Microsoft didn't give us any extra time." Although they got the faction finished, Petersen says the studio made three mistakes: Using the "wrong art" for the game's turtle ships, referring to the "Sea of Japan" instead of the "East Sea," which is what it'st known as in Korea, and referencing a Japanese invasion of Korea in the late 1600s "which for some reason in 2000 was controversial". He also claims that a Microsoft representative in Korea was "arrested and detained for a while", which would be a pretty remarkable turn of events.
At this point, it's worth noting that this is far from the first time Petersen has shared stories about his videogame career, and several of his recollections have been disputed in the past. Petersen's primary sceptic is Doom co-creator John Romero, who Petersen worked alongside at id Software. Earlier this year, for example, Petersen claimed that he "Wrote the original Doom backstory". Romero quickly responded to state this was "incorrect", and that the backstory was written by id Software cofounder Tom Hall before Petersen joined id Software.
There are numerous other examples of Romero disputing claims and recollections made by Petersen. Romero wasn't parley to the development Age of Empires 2 or its Conqueror's expansion, however, so for now we only have Petersen's perspective.
Either way, Petersen's final point, that "we didn't sell 3 million copies of Age of Empires 2 in Korea after all" does at least seem accurate. But that hasn't stopped the game from enjoying decades of support from both its players and Microsoft. Indeed, the Definitive Edition is still receiving massive patches, with the latest being one of the biggest updates the game's ever had.
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