Age of Empires developer working on new MMO title

The studio behind the Age of Empires (and Age of Mythology) series is working on a new massively multiplayer title, a job listing on Ensemble Studio's company website has revealed.

The firm is currently advertising for an "experienced server architect to assist in creating a world-class massively multiplayer game," and is demanding "experience with shipping an existing massively multiplayer game."

However, it's not clear whether this indicates that Ensemble is following in the footsteps of Blizzard, which created the immensely popular World of Warcraft online game from its Warcraft real-time strategy franchise, or if an entirely new property is in the works.

For its part, Microsoft is remaining tight-lipped - but it should be noted that the firm is very keen to get massively multiplayer games onto the Xbox 360, and has already tapped Square Enix for Final Fantasy XI.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at E3, Blizzard VP of business operations Paul Sams also confirmed that the company had held talks with Microsoft about bringing World of Warcraft to the Xbox 360, but has no plans at present to do so.

"World of Warcraft was really built with a focus on PC," he explained, "and while I think it certainly could get to Xbox, it's not something that at this moment we've decided to do."