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Age of Empires Online adding new civilization and booster pack next week
The Babylonians are joining Age of Empires Online. In a recent interview, Gas Powered Games revealed that both this industrious new pro civilization and a new booster pack, Fertile Crescent, will be added to the game on August 16th to coincide with the game's one-year anniversary. The Babylonians bring with them new ways to build, protect, and conquer, from mobile storehouses called Ox Carts to The Siege Tower (think Trojan horse) to shield bearers. Additionally, the Babylonians can build out of wood instead of stone. The land of Mesopotamia also opens up the game with the Fertile Crescent booster pack. This area has level-scaling repeatable quests for the level 20 to 40 crowd. Lead designer Brian Frick noted that this type of scaling content is the direction the company is going in the future. He added, "We just want to have more of our content be fun for all levels to play." Both the new Babylon pro civ and the booster pack will be purchased using Empire Points, the in-game currency; Babylon will cost 900 EP, and the Fertile Crescent will cost 450 EP. You can read more details in the full interview.
Age of Empires Online adopts a truly free business model
Last month, the Age of Empires Online developers announced an aim to take the game away from its "free-to-try" business model and move to truly free. With the latest update, the real-time strategy game will not only convert to a truly free-to-play model but also offer new content to players in the form of Alliance Wars (a team-based competition for level-40 players) along with new purchasable vanity items and consumables. In the move to make all premium content available through gameplay, the game's currency -- Empire Points -- can now be earned through conventional play or purchased through Steam. Chris Taylor, founder and CEO of Gas Powered Games, explains, "With Empire Points and this true free-to-play business model, we are giving players what they have repeatedly asked for... fewer pay walls and more ways for players to experience this legendary franchise." As the game transitions to this new model, all current players will receive a gift of 500 Empire Points automatically, while new accounts will receive 100. Current players who had Empire Points previously will see them converted into in-game coin. [Source: Gas Powered Games press release]
