Century: Age Of Ashes - What We Know So Far

The 2020 Game Awards, as is the tradition every year, interspersed its industry superlatives with new looks at upcoming titles or features and reveals of entirely new games alike. Among the first-time reveals at this year's show was a gameplay trailer for Century: Age of Ashes, in which players control dragon riders in multiplayer combat.

Developer Playwing has only released one game prior to the development of Century: Age of Ashes – a futuristic RTS for PC and mobile devices called Instant War.

Bucking the current battle royale trend, Century: Age of Ashes will pit players against one another in three different game types. Carnage is a 6v6 deathmatch, Survival is a 6v6v6 contest to determine the last team standing, and Raid is a capture the flag mode. Players will choose between one of three classes of dragon riders, each with their own active and passive abilities, prior to the start of each match.

Currently, Century: Age of Ashes is scheduled for a February 2021 release, as stated at the end of its initial reveal trailer. However, this will not be a full release but the beginning of an Early Access period, the process for which is detailed on its Steam Store page.

First, prior to even its official release date, a Closed Beta will begin in January. Then, come February, the game will enter an Early Access period that's expected to last for about a year. Playwing explained, in a statement on Steam, that it decided on first releasing an Early Access version of the game due in large part to its small development team of just over 30 people.

As with most games that launch in an unfinished state, Playwing will be compiling player feedback during this initial year or so of availability. The full version of the game will ultimately launch with additional maps and character classes on a date that has yet to be determined.

Virtually all that is currently known about Century: Age of Ashes comes thanks to some logistical information on Playwing's official website for the game and its initial trailer shown during The Game Awards.

First, a brief cinematic sets the stage for Century: Age of Ashes' world. Overall, the setting is standard medieval-inspired fantasy. Player characters resemble stock armored knights, and its dragons are classically spiny and scaly. The initial setting showcased in this trailer is a castle in a snowy, mountainous region. The cinematic ends as a dragon rider mounts their dragon, which is equipped with metal reins and a harness.

Then gameplay is showcased for the balance of the trailer. Players will control their rider and dragon from a fixed third-person perspective. Arenas include significant vertical space, since player-controlled dragons can fly in all directions. At many points, various colorful indicators appear on-screen, tracking the paths taken by other players' dragons. Attacks are a mix of standard fire breath and special abilities unique to each character class.

Century: Age of Ashes is currently planned as a PC-exclusive release. However, the variety of launchers on which Century: Age of Ashes will be available is, as seems to be a trend now, not so straightforward.

On Playwing's website, Steam is listed as the only platform through which the game will be playable. However, the final screen of the reveal trailer detailing its release includes a "Get it from Microsoft" icon and an Epic Games Store logo. Barring an error, this suggests that Century: Age of Ashes will be a timed Steam exclusive.

Though no information as to when the game will be available through the Microsoft and Epic stores has been released, it's likely that its Steam exclusivity is the result of its Early Access period. While the Epic Games Store does allow for games to release in Early Access, limiting its initial release to one platform may simply be cleaner.

Both upon its initial and full releases, Century: Age of Ashes will be free to play.