In 2006, a Spiritual Successor, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends was released, but instead of a historical game, Rise of Legends turned more towards fantasy elements (similarly to what Age of Mythology was to Age of Empires), creating a world where fantasy and technology coexisted.
Later that year, a Gold edition of Rise of Nations was released, which included both the original and the expansion. On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games released the Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots expansion, featuring new civilizations, campaigns, and game mechanics. It also has one of the most clever user interfaces in recent RTS history, averting the 'hunt-and-peck hotkeys' nuisance that has plagued so many other titles in the genre. Rise of Nations features 18 civilizations, playable through eight ages of world history. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been added into the game, including territories and attrition warfare.
The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II and Sid Meier�s Alpha Centauri. Rise of Nations is a Real-Time Strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003.
