Born in 1993 this game inspired hundreds of other games and in turn was inspired by the God Game Civilization. Microsoft attempted to emulate the sucess of Civilization by combining with Ensemble Studios and relasing this real time strategy Game.

Age of Empires, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, was heavily inspired by Civilization's historical theme but adapted for real-time strategy gameplay. Though the question incorrectly states 1993 (Age of Empires actually released in 1997), the description of Microsoft partnering with Ensemble Studios and the Civilization inspiration clearly points to Age of Empires as the correct answer.