Age of Empires
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
Age of Elements
The game was first announced in June 2006. It was debuted by publisher Atari at E3 2006, who described its production at the time as about 40% complete. The game was announced to be developed by a newly created development team named "Steamroll". The game was made playable at the event. The game was planned to have a "Winter 2006" release, (late 2006 to early 2007) on the PlayStation Portable handheld video game console, but the release was later cancelled in 2007.