In a post on the Age of Empires blog (via Neowin), Shannon Loftis, VP at World’s Edge Studio, the home of Age of Empires, has announced her retirement. Loftis spent almost her entire career at Microsoft in gaming, working on racing games and then Kinect before becoming the General Manager of Global Games Publishing, and leading the revival of Age of Empires.
Loftis says in the blog post that she planned to leave Microsoft only at a high point, “and there has been no higher point than this,” with the successful launch of Age of Empires IV last October.
Loftis announced that Michael Mann, executive producer of Age of Empires IV, will be taking over as acting head of World’s Edge Studio, and that she will “be around for some time” to assist in the transition.
Loftis also noted that there’s more to come for Age of Empires, with the first major update to Age of Empires IV coming in the spring, with “features that will enhance the Age of Empires IV experience as well as creating new ways to play,” and more work on earlier versions of Age of Empires:
The teams working on Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition are also hard at work on expanding those titles, with exciting plans they’ll be sharing in the coming months. With Age of Empires’ 25th anniversary this year, the future is bright for the franchise and history is being made!
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