Age of Empires 4's first major update arrives next week with the Festival of the Ages

Age of Empires 4's first major update Festival of Ages is coming next week, and it's bringing a slew of content with it. 

Seasons make their debut with this update, with Season 2 set to start in the next few months. They'll include Ranked Seasons to accommodate competitive multiplayer, and special Seasonal Events that will have rewards for unique, rotating challenges. 

The first Ranked Season will last for 12 weeks. Players will need to complete five placement matches to determine their rank. Then, they'll need to make their way up from Bronze to Diamond, with the goal of the eventual Conqueror rank. When ranking in a specific placement, players will receive Monuments for their Town Center, coat of arms, and portraits to appear via their player profile. 

The update will also introduce a content editor, which will launch in beta but will allow players to create their own maps, change up individual options to their liking, and balance units in ways that they prefer. There's even a way to weave together entire mods. 

Developer Relic Entertainment debuted a number of the coming updates in a trailer as well as a special livestream, which you can see below. 

In addition to seasons and the new content editor, the game will receive a few quality of life improvements and balance changes. There aren't further updates on those just yet, but they'll be forthcoming when Season 1 arrives. 

For Age of Empires 4 players, these updates and changes should offer plenty of reasons to come back to the game. More details will emerge in the coming days, but there's already a wealth of goodies to keep your eye on. 

Unsure if this strategy staple is your cup of tea? Be sure to check out our full Age of Empires 4 review.