Tencent is working on an Age of Empires game for smartphones

Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studios is working on a new Age of Empires game for smartphones. A Chinese trailer for an Age of Empires Return to Empire has surfaced online. The game has not yet been announced for Europe.

The Chinese trailer for the game was shared by Twitterer Daniel Ahmad. He often shares these kinds of trailers that are not yet circulating here because the game has only been announced for China, for example. TiMi Studios already announced a partnership with Xbox Game Studios in May.

Age of Empires Return to Empire is only available in China for now. The game combines Eastern and Western realms, but keeps the familiar RTS gameplay we know from the series. A gameplay demo will be released on August 14 for the Chinese market.

The studio is behind more free-to-play games, such as Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile and Arena of Valor. Billions are made with the games. TiMi Studios reportedly had sales of more than $10 billion in 2020.

Recently, TiMi Studios released a new free-to-play MOBA: Pokémon Unite. While free-to-play games are no stranger to the Pokémon franchise since Pokémon GO, the game was heavily criticized upon release. Pokémon Unite would be too much pay-to-win.

Age of Empires Return to Empire is not the first mobile title in the Age of Empires franchise. That honor goes to a 2005 Java game. The game was a stripped-down version of Age of Empires II.