StarCraft quickly made a name for itself in the RTS setting, with players quickly getting a feel for the three playable factions: Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg. Where Command & Conquer and Age of Empires keep things relatively grounded, StarCraft is set firmly in the future and also in outer space. The popularity of Age of Empires has helped keep interest in RTS alive, alongside other popular RTS titles like Blizzard’s StarCraft. Like Westwood Studios, Ensemble Studios was eventually acquired by a larger company (in this case, Microsoft) and the Age of Empires franchise today is published by Xbox Game Studios. Toward the end of development of this early RTS title, Westwood Studios began forming concepts for what would go on to become one of the most recognizable names in RTS and help create a loyal fan base that would keep RTS games alive throughout the rest of the decade and into the 2000s.Īfter Westwood Studios had success with their Command & Conquer franchise, Ensemble Studios released Age of Empires in 1997, a series that will finally be getting a new game later this year after a drought of over a decade.

Their debut in RTS was with Dune II in 1992, a game which would sell hundreds of thousands of copies throughout the '90s and still has a following even today, with the game being ported to Android as recently as 2013. Though Westwood Studios would eventually close after being purchased by EA, it holds the distinction of creating some of the most-loved RTS games in the genre. Though there are examples of RTS games dating back to the '80s, most people will remember the '90s as a time when developers like Westwood Studios and Blizzard Entertainment were creating RTS titles that still hold up today. Have we really passed the point where companies are willing to gamble on developing an RTS title? To answer this question, we have to go back to the start… RTS Had Humble Beginnings But what does the age of RTS gaming look like now? There are a few notable titles (and we’ll get to those), but the genre doesn’t get the same exposure that it did in its heyday. To take advantage of these specific controls, developers began churning out RTS games that would go on to be cult classics. In a decade when many people around the world were securing home PCs for the first time, gamers began setting their sights on their keyboards and mice for gaming purposes. Throughout the '90s, there was a genre that seemed to be synonymous with PC gaming: real-time strategy.

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