Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'

Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition's curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game's history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel's original designers.

That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake.