Microsoft has announced a brand new entry in the Age of Empires franchise is in the way and that Sega’s Relic Entertainment is at the helm.

This makes it the first entry in the franchise to not be handled by series creator Ensemble Studios.

This isn’t the first time that a Sega studio has stepped in to help a Microsoft project; Total War studio Creative Assembly developed Halo Wars 2 for the Xbox firm.

This new Age of Empires game follows the news that a remake of the original was on the way, and is the first brand new entry in the franchise

“1997 gave us two things that shaped who we are today: the start of Relic Entertainment; and a then-newly released game called Age of Empires,” the studio wrote in a blog post.

“It’s no secret that we’re the biggest fans of RTS games and, over the years, we’ve spent countless hours building empires and taking to battle.

“We wonder what our team would have said way back then, if someone told us that Relic would eventually partner with Microsoft Studios to make the next game in that legendary series. Something tells us we might have been just determined enough to think, “yeah, of course we will!”

“Now that the dream has become a reality with the announcement of Age of Empires IV, we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the legacy. We can’t wait to tap into our strengths as a studio to fuse historical context with deep strategic gameplay, and to bring this franchise back to the forefront of gaming and into the hands of its beloved community.”

PCGamesInsider.biz recently spoke to franchise creator Bruce Shelley about the making of the original Age of Empires; a game that was described by one reviewer as ‘digital cocaine’.