Publication of an Age of Empires screenshot in a book. Copyright protection?

Age of Empires has had a lot of developers over the years, contacting anyone of them through their websites (assuming they're not defunct) should constitute a foundation for getting permission to use their games assets in a publication. You're most likely
not going to reach the people you're looking for on the forums. Writing a letter to Xbox Game Studios (because they're the current publisher/apparent owner of the series) may also be a good start. You'd have to look up a physical address online, I'm unsure
as if we're allowed to post stuff like that on the forums. Their contact office phone number should also be online as well if you wanted to attempt to call them about it.

This Wiki articles shows a majority of the developers over the years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires

it should fall under "Fair Use" as it is used for "review/criticism" and is only a small percentage of the total new work (your book)

most importantly, it doesn't deprive the copyright holder of the commercial value of the original work (your book is not a market substitute for Age of Empires).

this link might be helpful, although it is a long read and some of it is heavy going.

https://www.morse.law/news/writers-guide-to-fair-use

I hope this is of some help

Well the team has done a great job in helping. I just wanted to say how interesting the book sounds. I use digital games now. However, I adored the gaming maps that used to come in cases so much I have lots of them on my living room wall.

I would suggest you have a look in the link below. It gives you a rundown of what the legal department has set out regarding the use of intelectual property.

I see there is a contact email to find out more about using clips, screenshots etc.

https://www.xbox.com/en-us/developers/rules

Hi Simon,

the only thing I have found is this:
"Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content"

Hope this helps