This is an old question but everyone who answered it is incorrect (I’m googling for AoE on Mac so I came across this). I had to go to the Apple store to buy the game for Mac, because I used to use PC. Basically I fluctuated back and forth from Mac. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition completes the celebration of one of the most beloved real-time strategy franchises with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, fully enhanced audio, two new game modes, and includes all expansions and all 14 civilizations, plus two brand new civilizations – the Swedes and Inca.

As I‘ve written in earlier blog posts, Age of Empires is my most favorite game of all time. So, you can imagine my dismay when Microsoft announced in 2008 that they were shutting down Ensemble Studios, the development studio for all the Age of Empires titles. It would appear that Microsoft has reconsidered the decision to end the Age of Empires line, as they’ve recently released two significant updates—Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

These updates improved the graphics quality and also moved to DirectX 11 as the graphics library upon which the games are based. I wrote about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Parallels Desktop in an earlier blog post, and in this post I will discuss Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

Age Of Empires For Macbook

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: because Parallels Desktop™ for Mac moved to Apple Metal and now supports DirectX 11, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition plays great in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro. You can see this for yourself in this short video:

Video1: Some short gameplay of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in Parallels Desktop

Rated T for Teen by the ESRB, Age of Empires III costs $54.99. System requirements call for a G4/1.4GHz or faster (Intel included), Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, 512MB RAM, 64MB VRAM and a video card. Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties is the second expansion pack for the real-time strategy video game Age of Empires III developed through a collaboration between Ensemble Studios and Big Huge Games, and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over, developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft.

Of course, the most important variable in-game performance is the specs for your Mac. The basic specs for the Mac used for Video 1 are shown in Figure 1.

Age of Empires was a highly anticipated game for the Mac because when it was released for the PC, it was widely viewed as a milestone in real-time strategy. Age of Empires is a unique hybrid of empire-building strategy games like Civilization II and real-time action strategy games like WarCraft, and it delivers a unique gaming experience.

Note: There does appear to be a small bug in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Its check for video memory in a Parallels Desktop virtual machine is incorrect, and you may see the dialog shown in Figure 2. Just ignore this warning as it does not appear to affect gameplay at all. (I have reported the bug to the Age of Empires team.)

The Age of Empires team has also announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires IV. I will test them in Parallels Desktop as soon as they are available.

Let me know in the comments about your experience with any of the Age of Empires titles or other games that you play (or want to play!) in Parallels Desktop on your Mac.

Age Of Empires For Mac Steam

Download a free 14-day free trial to try Age of Empires and Parallels Desktop yourself to see how it works for your Mac set up!