Age of Empires is a series of personal computer games developed by
Ensemble Studios and published by
Microsoft Studios. The first title of the series was
Age of Empires, released in 1997. Since then, seven titles and three spin-offs have been released. The titles are historical
real-time strategy games, and their gameplay revolves around two main game modes: Single player and
campaign. They competed with another popular strategy series,
Civilization, and are set amidst historical events.