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 Empires II
In January 2000, three months after its release, Microsoft announced that they had shipped two million copies of "The Age of Kings". The game topped sales charts in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and South Korea. It would spend the next two and a half years on top 20 sales lists. "The Age of Kings" was top selling game in October 1999, and the fourth highest selling game in 1999. The game's sales in the United States alone totaled 469,376 by the end of 1999, which drew revenues of $20.2 million, the second-highest domestic gross that year behind "SimCity 3000". Domestic sales rose another 442,318 units ($19.56 million) from January through October 2000, according to PC Data. It finished the year as the seventh-largest computer game hit in the United States, with 595,016 in sales and $26.2 million in revenue. "Age of Empires II"s domestic success continued in 2001: with sales of 478,557 units ($19.4 million), it claimed tenth place for the year.