The remastered edition of Age of Empires is hitting shelves in February.

The date was announced via Xbox Wire, with Microsoft creative director Adam Isgreen saying the Definitive Edition of the classic strategy game will be launching on February 20th.

Furthermore, the title's multiplayer beta is being opened up to all players on January 29th.

The title will set gamers back $19.99.

"When we set out to create the Definitive Edition of the original Age of Empires, our goal was to deliver the best possible version of this classic, from a top notch audio-visual presentation to multiplayer to core game systems," Isgreen said.

"Everything needed to be as good as you remembered it (or better!) to deliver a compelling RTS experience 20 years after its original release.

"…and that took us a bit longer than we’d originally planned. But, it was important for the team to treat the Age of Empires franchise with the respect it deserves, so we took the time we needed to get features like attack-move and the improved minimap exactly right, and even added things like an in-game tech tree (how did we survive 1997 without that?) that we hope fans will love."

We spoke to Bruce Shelley, the designer of the original Age of Empires, earlier this year about how that game came together, and the impact it had. One reviewer even described the title as "digital cocaine". 

A fourth Age of Empires game was announced at Gamescom last year. The title is being developed by Relic Entertainment.