designer age of empires 
___MASK40___ is a video game developer and the founder and owner of the now - defunct Stainless Steel Studios . He is best known for the RTS games he designed , such as Age of Empires and Empire Earth . Microsoft Windows ( or simply Windows ) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed , marketed , and sold by Microsoft . It consists of several families of operating systems , each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with ___MASK73___ PC compatible architecture . Active Windows families include Windows NT , Windows Embedded and Windows Phone ; these may encompass subfamilies , e . g . Windows Embedded Compact ( Windows CE ) or Windows Server . Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x ; Windows 10 Mobile is an active product , unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile . Microsoft Corporation ( commonly referred to as Microsoft or MS ) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond , Washington , that develops , manufactures , licenses , supports and sells computer software , consumer electronics and personal computers and services . Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems , Microsoft Office office suite , and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers . Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup . As of 2016 , it was the world ' s largest software maker by revenue , and one of the world ' s most valuable companies . Age of Empires ( AoE ) is a history - based real - time strategy video game released in 1997 . Developed by ___MASK7___ and published by Microsoft . The game uses the Genie , a 2D sprite - based game engine . The game allows the user to act as the leader of an ancient civilization by advancing it through four ages ( the Stone , Tool , Bronze , and Iron Ages ) , gaining access to new and improved units with each advance . It was later ported to Pocket PCs with Windows , resulting in a version very similar to the PC game . Originally touted as Civilization meets Warcraft , some reviewers felt that the game failed to live up to these expectations when it was released . Despite this , it received generally good reviews , and the expansion pack Age of Empires : The Rise of Rome was released in 1998 . Both the original Age of Empires and the expansion pack were later released as `` The Gold Edition '' . A sequel , Age of Empires II , was released in 1999 . Age of Mythology ( AoM ) is a mythology - based real - time strategy video game developed by ___MASK7___ and published by Microsoft Game Studios . It was released on October 30 , 2002 in North America and a week later in Europe . Halo Wars is a real - time strategy ( RTS ) video game developed by ___MASK7___ and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console . It was released in Japan and Australia on February 26 , 2009 ; in Europe on February 27 ; and in North America on March 3 . The game is set in the science fiction universe of the " Halo " series in the year 2531 , 21 years before the events of "". The player leads human soldiers aboard the warship " Spirit of Fire " in an effort to stop an ancient fleet of ships from falling into the hands of the genocidal alien Covenant . Redmond is a city in King County , Washington , United States , located east of Seattle , within the Seattle metropolitan area . The population is 60 , 560 in 2016 , an increase from the 2010 census , up from 45 , 256 in 2000 census . Redmond is commonly recognized as the home of Microsoft and ___MASK50___ of America . With an annual bike race on city streets and the state ' s only velodrome , Redmond is also known as the " Bicycle Capital of the Northwest ". Age of Empires is a series of personal computer games developed by ___MASK7___ ( defunct in 2009 ) and published by Microsoft Studios . The first title of the series was " Age of Empires ", released in 1997 . Since then , seven titles and three spin - offs have been released . The titles are historical real - time strategy games , and their gameplay revolves around two main game modes : Single player and campaign . They competed with another popular strategy series , " Civilization ". ___MASK7___ was a video game developer initially established in 1995 as an independent company by Tony Goodman , ___MASK40___ and John Boog - Scott , but was acquired by Microsoft in 2001 and operated as an internal studio until 2009 , when it was officially disbanded . Ensemble developed many real - time strategy games , including the " Age of Empires " game series , " Age of Mythology ", and " Halo Wars ". In addition to game development , ___MASK7___ also made the Genie Game Engine used in " Age of Empires ", "", and "". The studio sold 20 million games and was worth an estimated $ 500 million .