Rise of Nations hits the Windows Store with Steam cross-play and a huge discount

RTS classic Rise of Nations is now available on the Windows Store, and it's up for grabs at a huge discount. To mark its launch, the game is available for $4.99 through the end of the month, a discount from its standard $19.99 price tag.

One of the big draws of the Windows Store version of Rise of Nations is that it supports cross-play with the Steam release. That's a pretty big deal, as it circumvents a pretty big barrier that had previously been present, separating player bases between the same game depending on choice of storefront. Anyone who bought Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare at launch will be familiar with the annoyances caused by a lack of cross-play.

Thankfully, as Microsoft has confirmed the Rise of Nations team worked directly with teams from Steam and Xbox Live to get cross-play working. This could portend a brighter future for cross-play with other games as well.

In any case, Rise of Nations: Extended Edition on the Windows Store includes the game's full lineup of 24 nations out of the gate. Once you've chosen a nation, you can conquer 6,000 years of history through turn-based strategy gameplay throughout a single-player campaign or with up to eight players online. The Extended Edition also builds on the 2003 original with improved visuals, and it includes the Thrones and Patriots expansion for free.

If you're into RTS games and want to dive into a classic, you can pick up Rise of Nations on the Windows Store now.

See at Microsoft

CATEGORIES
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl

Latest in Gaming
Atomfall
Can I play Atomfall on Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and other gaming handhelds?
The Thing: Remastered key art
The Thing comes to Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" library alongside other new arrivals
Promotional screenshot of heroes fighting a giant in Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian's classic Baldur's Gate successor 'Pillars of Eternity' is getting a surprise turn-based mode later this year, alongside other updates
Atomfall
Atomfall reviews and Metacritic scores are in: Here's a roundup of what everyone's saying about this new Game Pass survival game
Screenshot of one of the new flat world presets in Minecraft.
Minecraft testing new flat world presets and a better way to locate your friends in-game
Cover art for Heroes of the Storm.
Xbox Game Pass will give you more benefits in free-to-play games like Heroes of the Storm
Latest in News
Cloud servers
Microsoft has killed "several" data center projects in the U.S. and Europe, according to reports — Microsoft responds (Updated)
Photo of Microsoft's new sign-in page for Xbox.com using the Microsoft Edge browser.
Over one billion users will get a new Microsoft user experience, and it has a dark mode
The Thing: Remastered key art
The Thing comes to Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" library alongside other new arrivals
Promotional screenshot of heroes fighting a giant in Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian's classic Baldur's Gate successor 'Pillars of Eternity' is getting a surprise turn-based mode later this year, alongside other updates
Atomfall
Atomfall reviews and Metacritic scores are in: Here's a roundup of what everyone's saying about this new Game Pass survival game
Screenshot of one of the new flat world presets in Minecraft.
Minecraft testing new flat world presets and a better way to locate your friends in-game