Why was Ensemble shut down?
Sorry but I thought you guys might have some more background info on why such a excellent studio was shut down. Really dumb move from MS, considering they already have such a meager number of internal studios.
Is there ever any hope we will see an AoE V from Robot?
I don't wanna get in flame thingies regarding ES, but as for your last issue, I hope Robot won't be making AoE IV or V. :)
There are quite alot of reasons floating around about the decision to close ES. Here are some of the things MGS and ES management have said about the closure:
Shane Kim an Executive at Microsoft said "We were positioning for things like Natal and I donât think the talent at Ensemble or Flight Simulator were necessarily the right studios for that." So they apparently thought ES wasnt the best studio to push Natal forward with.
Gamasutra have some interesting reading on the subject after a talk from Bruce Shelley at ES: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22402
g4TV also have a post mortem here: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693374/Live-Blog-DICE-2009---Bruce-She...
Those links and statements pretty much cover most of the reasons why ES might have been shut down.
Yup read those long time ago got very sad when they post on the front page they were closing in...:( but we got RE so were good :D
Yup read it it long time ago.. Very sad but don't able to know the reason behind it.. ?
Im Glad MS closed ES......But in a good way. After playing Orcs Must Die (I think Best arcade game this year,) I know they would of never made this under microsoft roof. They had more freedom and when people get more freedom we get good games like this. I do miss and will always will miss Ensemble, I will always remember why they changed Halo wars (the game was still good though,) but the people at Robot Entertainment are good if not better now then they ever were. Can't wait for Orcs Must Die! on onlive too as well (getting it there.)
Bruce Shelley soon updated his blog describing the reasons why Microsoft might have taken the action they did. An extract from Bruce’s blog read:
“Everyone at our studio was shocked, and I think remains very disappointed that this is going to happen. I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don’t fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we’re out.
A senior executive of MGS addressed the studio in early September and gave us the news. He did not go into a lot of detail about why, but basically the decision, as I understand it, was based on several major factors. First, they want to divert the headcount tied up in ES and the costs that are expected to be required to run ES for the next few years into other projects. Second, it sounded like it cost more to run ES on a per person basis than other first party studios (Rare, Lionhead, Forza, Flight Sim) putting us at a disadvantage. (Plus they avoid the expense of a new office that we were planning.) And third, games those studios are expected to deliver in the next few years are expected to be more strategic and profitable to the company than anything we would be finishing after Halo Wars.”
The reason was simple... focus on Xbox360 /care about PC that's my thinking i guess
Yeah and the stupid thing is MS is focusing on the PC side again.......
Yeah and the stupid thing is MS is focusing on the PC side again.......
With what like 1% of their ressources? they know PC gaming is gonna take the crown again some time in the future.... but for me AoE:O was nothing more then just milking franchise... :)
You'd have to ask Microsoft about why they closed Ensemble. It's not really our place to comment on their business decisions. Also, as for Age of Empires V, that would be up to Microsoft, as well. They own the Age of Empires franchise, and they will make any determinations about future titles and who will develop them.
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