Age of Empires (video game)
"Age of Empires" was a hit in the German market, where it debuted at #1 on 's sales rankings for the latter half of October 1997. After holding this position in the first half of November, it remained in Media Control's top 5 through the end of 1997. The following year, "Age of Empires" placed consistently in the top 3 through March, when it rose again to #1 in the last two weeks of the month. By the end of May, it had spent 28 consecutive weeks in Media Control's top rankings, with placements of fifth and eighth that month. "Age of Empires" proceeded to become the fourth-best-selling computer game in the German market during 1998's first nine months. It received a "Gold" award from the (VUD) in August, for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sales in the German market totaled 115,000 units by the end of September, and the VUD raised "Age of Empires" to "Platinum" status, for 200,000 sales, by November. At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, "Age of Empires" took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €15 million in the European Union during 1998. It remained at 14th on Media Control's charts for the German region by January 1999, continuing a 60-week streak on the charts.
Age of Empires II
Prior to the completion of "Age of Empires", Ensemble Studios had signed a contract with Microsoft for a sequel. The design team chose to set "The Age of Kings" in the Middle Ages as a logical progression from the ancient era setting of "Age of Empires". The design team was conscious of attempting to capture the broad appeal of the first game without making the game's design too similar. Nonetheless, they attempted to appeal to the vast demographic who played "Age of Empires". "The Age of Kings"s design team intended to complete the game within a year by using code from the original and reusing the Genie game engine. Several months into the process they found they would not be able to complete a game of the quality they sought in that time. Ensemble Studios informed Microsoft they would need another year and instead created "", an easily developed expansion pack of "Age of Empires", as a compromise which could be released for Christmas 1998. To help meet the next year's deadline, additional programmers, artists, and designers were employed. To overcome another significant objection to "Age of Empires"—that of path finding—the team completely redesigned the game engine's movement system.