{"id":1154933,"date":"2026-02-09T04:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/N735eaEmsf3yrqSXDPESga"},"modified":"2026-02-09T04:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:55:14","slug":"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","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/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\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because &#8216;Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/uk\/age-of-empires-2-definitive-edition\/\" target=\"_blank\">Age of Empires 2<\/a> fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition&#8217;s curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game&#8217;s history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel&#8217;s original designers.<\/p>\n<p>That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake. As Petersen explained in a lengthy<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SandyofCthulhu\/status\/1902050690891182224\" target=\"_blank\"> thread on X<\/a> (via<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.windowscentral.com\/gaming\/starcraft-was-impossible-to-topple-from-its-korean-throne-why-an-extra-civ-was-added-to-age-of-empires-2-at-the-last-minute\" target=\"_blank\"> Windows Central<\/a>), he was assigned to design the sequel&#8217;s first expansion pack,<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Age_of_Empires_II:_The_Conquerors\" target=\"_blank\"> The Conquerors<\/a>. As was the case for the original game&#8217;s expansion, Rise of Rome, Petersen opted to include four playable civs, the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The project went ahead extremely well. We were almost completely finished, 5 weeks ahead of schedule as of January 2000,&#8221; Petersen recalls. &#8220;I was excited to move onto Age of Empires 3. Then Microsoft called and we had an important conference call.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Petersen, Microsoft urged him to add a fifth faction to the expansion, the Koreans. Petersen pointed out that Korea is not known for its history of conquest. &#8220;Koreans, greatly to their credit, were not conquerors. They stayed in their lane. While they&#8217;re cool, they don&#8217;t fit the Conquerors theme.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In Peterson&#8217;s recollection, Microsoft then argued that &#8220;StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea&#8221;. To this, Peterson pointed out, &#8220;StarCraft doesn&#8217;t have any Koreans in it, so those sales had zero to do with a Korean civ.&#8221; Microsoft then reiterated the 3 million figure, at which point Petersen relented. &#8220;Once someone simply repeats a previous argument, it&#8217;s clear they are no longer functioning from logic or intelligence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ensemble apparently &#8220;crammed&#8221; in the Koreans during the final leg of development, because &#8220;Microsoft didn&#8217;t give us any extra time.&#8221; Although they got the faction finished, Petersen says the studio made three mistakes: Using the &#8220;wrong art&#8221; for the game&#8217;s turtle ships, referring to the &#8220;Sea of Japan&#8221; instead of the &#8220;East Sea,&#8221; which is what it&#8217;st known as in Korea, and referencing a Japanese invasion of Korea in the late 1600s &#8220;which for some reason in 2000 was controversial&#8221;. He also claims that a Microsoft representative in Korea was &#8220;arrested and detained for a while&#8221;, which would be a pretty remarkable turn of events.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, it&#8217;s worth noting that this is far from the first time Petersen has shared stories about his videogame career, and several of his recollections have been disputed in the past. Petersen&#8217;s primary sceptic is Doom co-creator John Romero, who Petersen worked alongside at id Software. Earlier this year, for example, Petersen<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SandyofCthulhu\/status\/1894849661850267802\" target=\"_blank\"> claimed<\/a> that he &#8220;Wrote the original Doom backstory&#8221;. Romero quickly responded to state this was<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/romero\/status\/1895538233800605835?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1895538233800605835%7Ctwgr%5Ee8f7b53e2855b7a0eaeaf1d861ffc8bd9bf6fb3d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamesradar.com%2Fgames%2Ffps%2Fyou-are-incorrect-john-romero-has-been-correcting-doom-history-for-the-past-4-years-and-hes-not-about-to-stop-now%2F\" target=\"_blank\"> &#8220;incorrect&#8221;,<\/a> and that the backstory was written by id Software cofounder Tom Hall before Petersen joined id Software.<\/p>\n<p>There are<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/romero\/status\/1376142582783295489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1376142582783295489%7Ctwgr%5Ee8f7b53e2855b7a0eaeaf1d861ffc8bd9bf6fb3d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamesradar.com%2Fgames%2Ffps%2Fyou-are-incorrect-john-romero-has-been-correcting-doom-history-for-the-past-4-years-and-hes-not-about-to-stop-now%2F\" target=\"_blank\"> numerous<\/a><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/romero\/status\/1419209829839773696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1419209829839773696%7Ctwgr%5Ee8f7b53e2855b7a0eaeaf1d861ffc8bd9bf6fb3d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamesradar.com%2Fgames%2Ffps%2Fyou-are-incorrect-john-romero-has-been-correcting-doom-history-for-the-past-4-years-and-hes-not-about-to-stop-now%2F\" target=\"_blank\"> other<\/a><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PetersenGames\/status\/1792663912149639314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1794487145475997837%7Ctwgr%5Ee8f7b53e2855b7a0eaeaf1d861ffc8bd9bf6fb3d%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamesradar.com%2Fgames%2Ffps%2Fyou-are-incorrect-john-romero-has-been-correcting-doom-history-for-the-past-4-years-and-hes-not-about-to-stop-now%2F\" target=\"_blank\"> examples<\/a> of Romero disputing claims and recollections made by Petersen. Romero wasn&#8217;t parley to the development Age of Empires 2 or its Conqueror&#8217;s expansion, however, so for now we only have Petersen&#8217;s perspective.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, Petersen&#8217;s final point, that &#8220;we didn&#8217;t sell 3 million copies of Age of Empires 2 in Korea after all&#8221; does at least seem accurate. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped the game from enjoying decades of support from both its players and Microsoft. Indeed, the Definitive Edition is still receiving massive patches, with the latest being one of the<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/age-of-empires-2-team-continues-to-cook-while-delivering-legendarily-long-8-000-word-patch-notes-about-the-biggest-updates-the-26-year-old-game-has-ever-had\/\"> biggest updates<\/a> the game&#8217;s ever had.<\/p>\n<div class=\"product\"><a data-dimension112=\"1018660c-3c82-48f1-afbf-1d57de496e07\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"Civilization 7 review\" data-dimension48=\"Civilization 7 review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"van-image-figure \" >\n<div class='image-full-width-wrapper'>\n<div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:502px;\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:100.00%;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"PNBU8kkiHRH4kZVE8CJji9\" name=\"civilization-7-caesar\" caption=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/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.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"502\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" credit=\"\" class=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/civilization-7-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-dimension112=\"1018660c-3c82-48f1-afbf-1d57de496e07\" data-action=\"Deal Block\" data-label=\"Civilization 7 review\" data-dimension48=\"Civilization 7 review\" data-dimension25=\"\"><strong>Civilization 7 review<\/strong><\/a>: Our verdict<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/civilization-7-guide-to-unexplained-systems-faq\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Civ 7 guide<\/strong><\/a>: An explainer for unexplained systems<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/civilization-7-victory-legacy-paths-win-conditions-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Civ 7 victory guide<\/strong><\/a>: All win conditions<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/how-towns-and-cities-work-in-civilization-7\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Civ 7 towns and cities<\/strong><\/a>: Settlements guide<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/civilization-7-age-transition-effects\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Civ 7 age transitions<\/strong><\/a>:<strong> <\/strong>Everything that changes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/games\/strategy\/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\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. The Definitive Edition&#8217;s curators, Forgotten Empires, have regularly updated the game with new playable civs for years. But it turns out the game&#8217;s history of adding unexpected dynasties stretches much farther back in time than 2017, at least according to one of the sequel&#8217;s original designers. That designer is Sandy Petersen, who joined Ensemble Studios after leaving id Software where he worked on both Doom and Quake. As Petersen explained in a lengthy thread on X (via Windows Central), he was assigned to design the sequel&#8217;s first expansion pack, The Conquerors. As was the case for the original game&#8217;s expansion, Rise of Rome, Petersen opted to include four playable civs, the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/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\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1154934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[748,516],"class_list":["post-1154933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-games","tag-strategy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because &#039;Starcraft sold 3 million copies in Korea&#039; | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Age of Empires 2 fans are no strangers to the game receiving new factions. 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