Ensemble Studios, makers of Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2, and Age of Mythology, some of the best RTSs ever made. There are other great RTSs, but they're all great in different ways from the Age series, which nothing else resembles.
Microsoft bought them, and shut them down not long after for insufficient profits. Sigh.
Age of Empires IV is being made now since they noticed there's demand, but the studio they chose is a well-known clown collective. Hopes are not high.
In the same vein, I really miss Bullfrog, and the company that was formed after Bullfrog was shuttered, Mucky Foot. They made some of the best casual RTS games I've ever played, particularly Dungeon Keeper and Startopia.
I still play them to this day despite having spent thousands and thousands of hours on both, to the extent that I know them inside out, and yet they've never stopped being fun.
...which I coincidentally listened to via Audible today. There’s a lot more to the story than, “...shut them down... for insufficient profits.” They wanted to branch out from the RTS genre, prototyped a bunch of different ideas, but didn’t really get far enough (or enough traction with MSFT, which wrote their checks) to ship them. Microsoft was wary of them launching new IP, so tasked them with making Halo Wars, which was an RTS for consoles. This was a drastically different undertaking than RTS-for-PCs due to controllers (instead of keyboards + mice), and they all got burned out working on it after many years. Microsoft shut them down after Halo Wars shipped.
yeah, I'm one of the most active players there. But that just goes to underscore my point....I'm playing a game from 20 years ago because they're not around to make new ones anymore.
I take it you've seen the HD version of AoE2 and the subsequent DLC/expansions. Its all on Steam. As with you and your list, the best made RTS were long ago. Sadly i don't think we'll likely see another AoE type game without all the shit that goes into modern gaming ( freemiums, DLC for even the minor thing, loot boxs and all that shit ).
My mum played that one so much, she must've played it for years. Sometimes pausing for a couple months, only to fertle it up again somewhere and play it.
I used it for a number of things, around 2002 or so. I don't recall the specific model, but I used until it stopped working.
I hadn't heard of the Pyra, but as with all these custom-designed open devices... they are cool, but the cost is always so much higher than any comparable commercial product you could buy. I guess RMS can afford one, but I can't.
Met him at a metro station in Boston as I was going for a job interview. The company used Gnu/linux but the devs didn't even know who Stallman or Linus were. I didn't get the job because I wasn't "technical" enough. I was not asked any technical questions. Probably dodged a bullet there.
Microsoft bought them, and shut them down not long after for insufficient profits. Sigh.
Age of Empires IV is being made now since they noticed there's demand, but the studio they chose is a well-known clown collective. Hopes are not high.