After 14 years, an Age of Empires 2 fan mod becomes an official expansion

In 14 years, your average video game franchise has a fairly decent shot at hitting a double-digit sequel number.

In 14 years, your average video game franchise has a fairly decent shot at hitting a double-digit sequel number. It's not really in vogue to go back and simply keep adding content to an older game—so who ever thought that, a decade and a half after its original release, Age of Empires 2would receive an official expansion? It's true, and it's happening courtesy of Microsoft Studios, which is supporting the team behind the fan-made mod Forgotten Empiresto bring new content to the classic strategy game's HD release.

This was announced by a developer post on Steam, where it's revealed that SkyBox Labs is currently working with Forgotten Empires LLC to bring the mod to "official" status. It's a pretty swank success story for a team of amateur developers—why aren't my custom TF2 hats getting this much attention?

Anyway, Age of Empires 2 HD—The Forgotten will allow us to explore five forgotten civilizations and their technologies, four new campaigns, a bunch of maps, new AI, and more. And, hauling the ancient franchise into the modern age will be Twitch.tv integration. It's roughly scheduled for a Steam release next month; follow Forgotten Empires on Facebookto keep up with their updates.