In a completely unexpected update, indie game developer Petroglyph teamed up with Disney to release a massive update that restores multiplayer functionality to its 2006 RTS Star Wars: Empire at War.  Still listed as one of the most popular Star Wars games on Steam, Star Wars: Empire at War courted a huge player base, which became stunted after online matchmaking middleware company Gamespy shut down in 2013.  The update – now available for download – restores Empire at War’s multiplayer functionality by removing its old Gamespy ties and implementing Steam multiplayer in its stead.  According to Petroglyph general manager Chuck Kroegel, multiplayer functionality was only brought back to the game thanks to its dedicated fan base.

We have received a huge number of requests to restore the multiplayer functionality to Star Wars: Empire at War.  The game’s fan base has only increased with time and the user concurrency rates remain very strong, so we really felt like this was something we needed to do for all the loyal fans.”

The update does more than restore Empire at War’s multiplayer functions, though; it also adds mod support via Steamworks and fixes multiple graphical and stability issues, “so you won’t get interrupted by errors and glitches as you fight for control of the galaxy.”  The update from Petroglyph covers both the core game and the Forces of Corruption expansion.  The full patch notes can be seen below:

• Gamespy completely removed as multiplayer solution in lieu of Steam multiplayer back-end in both FOC and EAW
• Enabled windowed mode support
• 2 internal crashes found / fixed – no specific repro steps available
• Fix for broken object shadows in Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
• Fix for start game button not highlighting on mouse over
• Fix for multiplayer campaign save/load not picking the right save game on the client
• Support for more than 3 AI players in applicable games
• Fix for galactic save/load not loading a save game unless it’s in slot 0
• Disable General Network Options button – This was only applicable to old modem/GameSpy players
• Hooked up community/web buttons to appropriate Steam overlay pages/websites as applicable (The old Gamespy buttons simply don’t work anymore so we repurposed them)
• Enabled selection/list of player mods on hard drive
• Crash fix for attempting to load an FOC mod in original EAW game
• Bug fix for creating units that are non-selectable in very long duration galactic mode games (makes save games unplayable past a certain point)

So, what are your thoughts on Empire at War’s multiplayer being restored?  Plan on picking the game up to give it a try?  Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news!  Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!