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A respectable port of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition invades macOS

The port seems solid, and all DLC is supported—but there’s no crossplay, sadly.

Samuel Axon – | 26
The beginning of the Kyoto historical battle
All the single-player campaigns, historical battles, and DLC are supported. Credit: Samuel Axon
All the single-player campaigns, historical battles, and DLC are supported. Credit: Samuel Axon
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Despite all the graphics capabilities of modern Macs, being a Mac gamer is generally a thankless existence. Every once in a while, though, Mac gamers get a bone thrown to them that is substantial enough that they think, for a brief moment, everything might be OK. One such bone has been thrown to us today—Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition just came out on macOS.

The game is available on Steam (those who own the Windows version on Steam automatically get the Mac version) and is planned for a later Mac App Store release.

Age of Empires II is arguably one of the greatest strategy games, and unlike too many of its real-time strategy (RTS) peers, it remains quite popular to this day and is still getting updates almost 30 years after its initial release.

The new Mac release is a port of the Definitive Edition remaster, which arrived in 2019. It comes with the original game’s first expansion, plus three of the more recent content packs: Lords of the West, Dynasties of India, and Dawn of the Dukes. (The game’s Microsoft-owned development studio, World’s Edge, has been releasing periodic expansion packs ever since the Definitive Edition release first arrived.)

There are many, many other content and DLC packs available for purchase, if the hundred-plus hours in that package isn’t enough, as all the DLC supported on Windows is also supported in the Mac version. The Definitive Edition has assets and an engine updated for up to 4K resolution, new unit animations, a remastered soundtrack, and a plethora of quality-of-life improvements.

This port was made by Feral Interactive, a mainstay of Mac ports perhaps best known for working on Mac versions of the games in the Total War and XCOM series.

Of course, ports can be hit or miss. I spent about an hour testing it out today on an M1 Max MacBook Pro and didn’t run into any problems. However, there is one huge caveat: The Mac version will not support cross-platform multiplayer with Windows or Xbox players. Granted, many people who have played this game over the years have never touched multiplayer and therefore won’t care, but some of the game’s most hardcore fans will feel that makes this port a non-starter.

This is not the first time the game has been available on Macs—the original version came out on Mac, too. But the Definitive Edition remaster that led to a major resurgence for the game in recent years hasn’t been available until now. It’s also worth noting that this is the first Microsoft-published game to get a macOS release in half a decade. But since this was done by Feral—a studio that pitches ports to IP owners—rather than in-house, it’s unlikely that this means the gates are opening.

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Samuel Axon Senior Editor
Samuel Axon is the editorial lead for tech and gaming coverage at Ars Technica. He covers AI, software development, gaming, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and he is a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development.
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It’s also worth noting that this is the first Microsoft-published game to get a macOS release in half a decade. But since this was done by Feral—a studio that pitches ports to IP owners—rather than in-house, it’s unlikely that this means the gates are opening.
Teams like this have been pitching for decades, I know because I was on the receiving end after the HD edition release over a decade ago. (Different vendor).

I am glad the economics must have made sense to do so, which I am thrilled to see, despite not having been involved for a long time.

I haven't spoken with them, so this is informed speculation just from covering the industry, but I would guess it's not a technical limitation but a practical one.
I have no recent insight either, but it would have been out of the question if I had done it for the older versions.... it'd have been a nightmare both technical and practical.
We ran into some really... fun... quirks with HD that stemmed from idiosyncrasies around decisions made due to cpu architecture in the late 90s.
If one side attempts to cheat via increasing resources or spawning units, the machines get out of sync and the match disconnects.
Said idiosyncrasies also caused this in addition to cheating. So yeah, pretty high likelihood of multiplayer sync issues cross-architecture.

DE puts them on a more modern footing quite a bit afaik but build alignment practical challenges certainly still exist. It would be a pain and an ongoing cost. I can see why MP is isolated.

TIL there is another AoEII remake. I've been playing the "HD Edition" on Steam for >10 years now, it supports multiplayer too and I've been perfectly happy with it. It runs great on the Steam Deck and even some 10+ year old computers I've got.
I'm glad to hear! That one was mine (also put aoe3 on steam, and did the first AOM remake there). Couldnt have predicted steam deck at the time, but kinda nifty it runs well on the hardware.
I wasnt involved in DE, but it is admittedly a pretty big improvement in a lot of ways, including more content. Worth checking out esp if a sale rolls around.

I'd love to get back into AoK, I got the new version about 7 years ago but there are just too many civs now. Please eliminate 3. /old Ager yells at cloud.
I started at msft with AOE3 - without having put that on Steam and doing well, idk if the franchise would have survived. AOEII expansions are a large part of its durability to today too. All I can do is join in the getting old party now :(
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