It’s not often that games are announced by hand puppets. Sure, we all remember when Valve hired Sooty and Sweep to endorse Richocet 2, but such events stand out for their rarity. So it was quite the surprise to see Microsoft announced they’re developing Age of Mythology: Extended Edition by having a llama hand puppet slamming a keyboard.
45 minutes into an Age of Empires II: HD stream the feed cut to this: a man with a llama hand puppet in control of his arm.
After slamming its head into a keyboard repeatedly, each hit bringing up different decals for the Twitch feed, it switched to a splash screen showing the Age of Mythology: Extended Edition box art.
We’ve no details beyond it being called Age of Mythology: Extended Edition and that it’s a collaboration between Microsoft Studios and Steam.
The Steam part’s great news as it means, like with the recent Age of Empires II: HD release, it will be supported by Steam’s servers. A much more stable and long-running alternative to Microsoft’s own servers, which the company has shown they’re not afraid of taking down..
If this release were a simple HD update then you’d expect that to be reflected in the title, as with Age of Empires II. No, the subtitled Extended Edition suggests we’ll be getting new content, hopefully a new campaign, and possibly a new faction.
There’s no announced release window yet but don’t worry, we’ll be listening out for one.