Microsoft to Close Ensemble Studios

[msmalls74]

Just saw this on a website,

Confirmed: Microsoft to close Ensemble Studios
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
Posted Sep 9, 2008 5:59 pm PT


Confirmation has come quick and fast in regard to rumors surfacing earlier today that Microsoft would be closing its internal developer Ensemble Studios upon the completion of sci-fi real-time strategy game Halo Wars. In joint statements issued today, Microsoft and Ensemble have confirmed that the studio will be shut down once the Xbox 360-exclusive RTS set in the best-selling Halo franchise ships out early next year.

"The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars," the publisher said in a statement. "This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of Halo Wars--in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game."

Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today's statement, the studio said that "the leadership team" will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with Microsoft to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."

Commenting on the reason for the closure, Microsoft said, "This was a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible."

As noted earlier today, the Age of Empires brand has sold more than 20 million units since the first installment debuted on the PC in 1997. According to the NPD Group, Ages of Empires III for the PC has sold 1.15 million units in the US alone through July 2008, with The Warchiefs expansion tallying nearly 305,000 more. (The second expansion, Asian Dynasties, was developed by Rise of Nations creators Big Huge Games.)

Ensemble has been a Microsoft-owned studio since 2001.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6197465.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1

Bit of a shame, and quite a surprise but at least some of them are staying on after Halo wars is done, shame no more AoE though ( i guess)

 

[Margaret]

Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today's statement, the studio said that "the leadership team" will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with Microsoft to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."

So they are more or less renaming.

 

[msmalls74]

So they are more or less renaming.

It sounds more like some of them are going off to make an independent non microsoft owned dev team, as a 1st party team would not need to enter an agreement with Microsoft to support HW, at least thats how i read it.

 

[RoachycaL]

That means no more age of empires - I'm pretty upset about that

 

[Hostile_18]

Yeah Age of Empires 2 ruled the world for a long time.

Shame three although good didn't reach its predecessors heights.

 

[Will Lucky]

I was hoping they would make a Age of Mythology 2 myself.

 

[Inazuma]

Let me be the first to cry out:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.. ooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

The Age series has been my favourite series for a very long time

It sounds more like some of them are going off to make an independent non microsoft owned dev team, as a 1st party team would not need to enter an agreement with Microsoft to support HW, at least thats how i read it.

I don't think it would make a whole lot of sense that they'd want to form an independent studio. Last I heard on their blog, they talked about how much freedom they have - they were able to start and stop many new projects at will because of the support (money) MS gave them.


I was hoping for an AOM2 as well

 

[TNA]

I love AOE3 and am a very disapointed to hear this. I hope they still make AOE4

 

[KNiVES]

So who else here thinks Halo Wars will lack a bit of... polish?

 

[Will Lucky]

So who else here thinks Halo Wars will lack a bit of... polish?

A seperate studio is being formed to look after that after its release.

 

[Kreeeee]

So who else here thinks Halo Wars will lack a bit of... polish?

It's an RTS on a console, it will never be a polished game.

 

[Shamikebab]

Every gameplay video I've seen of Halo Wars already looks incredibly polished.

 

[Inazuma]

Don't worry. Halo Wars has been in development since even before AOE3 was released. One of the AOE3 fansite webmasters got a sneak preview of AOE3 in ES's offices; one of the rooms was covered by a curtain with a phoenix symbol or something like that - signifying "Project Phoenix", which later was revealed as Halo Wars.

 

[Kainz]

That means no more age of empires - I'm pretty upset about that

You're not the only one. The AoE series is amongst my favourite, most played RTS's alongside C&C.

 

[Kreeeee]

Every gameplay video I've seen of Halo Wars already looks incredibly polished.

You'll be using a pad to control it, which stops the gameplay from ever feeling completely polished for me. C&C3 and BFMEII tried to do it but you play at half the pace you should and constantly fight with the controls.

 

[Shamikebab]

Yeah but they were PC games shoehorned into a console. This has been designed from the ground up for a console. I could be wrong but if anyone can do it it's them.

 

[Psyk]

This doesn't necessarily mean there will be no more AOE games. Microsoft could easily find another studio to make AOE if they wanted.

 

[Kreeeee]

Yeah but they were PC games shoehorned into a console. This has been designed from the ground up for a console. I could be wrong but if anyone can do it it's them.

I thought it was just using a mildly modified version of the BFMEII control scheme?