Bill Gates Takes Credit for a Classic Microsoft Game Coming Back, and We're Not Sure If It's a Joke'How many empires do you need?' Gates joked.

ByMatt Weinberger

This story originally appeared onBusiness Insider

Bill Gates/Reddit
Bill Gates announces his 2017 Reddit AMA.

When Bill Gates did his annual question-and-answer session on Reddit last year, one fan used this rare moment of access to the richest man in the world tobeg for a new game in Microsoft'sAge of Empiresseries.

Gates reply sent both the fan, whose login name is "le-click," and the video gaming worldinto a tizzy.

"I will look into this," Gates said "How many empires do you need?"

好吧,一年多后,点击的愿望has come true. At the E3 video game conference this week, Microsoft announcedAge of Empires: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the 1999 original. This enhanced edition will sport 4K ultra high-def graphics and updates to the gameplay.

Better yet,Gates himself returnedto that original Reddit thread to take credit for the announcement.

"I know it's been ages since/u/le-clickbegan this campaign, but I finally have an answer for you. Hopefully it will be worth the wait," Gates wrote.

So did a good word from Bill Gates push theAge of Empiresremake through? Was it already in the works before that AMA? Did the attention from Gates' quip get the project a green light, without his direct intervention? We just don't know.

We've reached out to Microsoft for comment to find out, and will update if we hear back.

In the meanwhile, here's the trailer forAge of Empires: Definitive Edition.

Wavy Line
Based in San Francisco, Matt Weinberger is a tech reporter for Business Insider. Previously, he reported on application development and new enterprise technologies for IDG'S CITEworld, Computerworld, and Networkworld.

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