In 1995 Ensemble Studios formed as an independent studio and kicked out a little game franchise known as Age of Empires. The title has received many accolades from the first in the franchise extended out to all the Age of Empires releases and spin-offs, all-in-all selling millions of copies.
Ensemble Studios had a mission “to create great games and a great place to work,” says Bruce Shelley from Ensemble Studios. Bruce Shelley also helped design Sid Meier’s Civilization and Railroad Tycoon with MicroProse prior to his work at Ensemble Studios. Now, however, he’s a bit upset at the closing of Ensemble Studios because they were profitable, created top-quality titles and had a great working environment.
Ensemble Studios, from his perspective at least, was a place you’d go to work and be happy with what you’re doing. When you’re working along nicely and become blind-sided by the news, it’s not surprising he didn’t take it lightly.
“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.” (ensemblestudios.com)
What’s the future plans for Ensemble Studios? As we’ve stated before, they plan to live on in spirit, within the bounds of a new name and a new game plan. “I believe the spirit and mission of ES will be carried forward in this new company if enough of the key leaders agree to take part, which I expect to happen. There has been no announcement about what the new studio will be working on when it gets going,” says Shelley.
This is a horrible way to have to launch a hot new intellectual property. Usually creating a new title with a building fanbase would lead to excitement, parties and high hopes for the future of the franchise. Instead, people will be dusting off their resume in hopes to continue a life of game development.
Hopefully the leaders will indeed form a brand new company and build brand new hot products with their entire staff intact. Then, take their titles to a different publisher (besides Microsoft) and make some money and fans.
Sony takes a
Recorded on 16th – that’s before posting the comment on ‘Computer specs’. Still not the happiest Jonah.
@Mass Effect 3 is Origin-only
It’s a pretty aggressive move to push for Origin. I’m sure they will have higher revenues if they would sell on both Steam and Origin.
I think that it will take a bit until every Steam user will have an Origin account, so, at least on short term, I see EA taking a bit of a hit.
Paul, I liked your point on this one.
@EA passed $1B in digital sales in 2011
I also have an opinion that a good chunk came from Steam. Because yes, EA also sold games on Steam in 2011.
Jordan, I like game boxes as well. And Paul, I also loaded games on a Z80 computer from an audio cassette.
Jonah, the games online cost (at launch at least) exactly as much as the ones from the retail store. Why is that? If I’m to pay the same price, I’d rather get the boxed copy, thank you very much.
@Gaikai: Sony or Microsoft won’t have next-gen console
MSFT has it a bit easy: stick to the PC-like hardware, that evolved from XBox360 until now.
As for Sony, don’t know, don’t care.
🙂 Jonah, loved your input 🙂
@SOPA:
Not touching it, it has been discussed to death. Every person who listens to podcasts is aware about SOPA.
@Thief 4 rumored to have multiplayer
All engines do light calculations on all entities now, in order to have a realistic rendering. As long as there is a way to access the results of that computation, any engine should do ok.
@QOTW:
I would say that my first MP game I played was “Battle City” (called “Tanks 1990” on the NES clone we had). A lot of other games followed, like Chip & Dales Rescue Rangers 1 & 2, Monster In My Pocket and a bunch of others.
Favorite game? Man … dunno … maybe Medal of Honor – Allied Assault, close to it would be AvP2. That doesn’t rule out Battle City or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Tournament Fighters. Too tough to pick one favorite.
@Mass Effect 3 as Origin exclusive
I think EA move to get its games as Origin exclusives (for digital distribution) will be a mistake on the long run. Steam already has a huge player base, and some players like me are not willing to have their games scattered in different accounts of different distributors.
PS: I also think that digital versions of games should be a bit cheaper than the boxed retail versions. Some MMO’s did this in the past, where you could buy a boxed version for a few more $$.
@SOPA I’ve already said my piece on it, but it was really interesting to see the blackout on some sites. Webupd8.org for instance, had a huge part of the words in its texts censored when the user visited the website for the first time during the day.
@QOTW:
First game of multiplayer was probably Kings of the Beach for the pc, or maybe some spectrum game before that. But the first that really made me love multiplayer was Quake2, which was also my first multiplayer online experience.
After that I was amazed with the MMORPG experience, firstly with Project Entropia, as I’ve never seen such a complex universe before, and after that I tried a few MMORPGs . Nowadays I tend to prefer the massive online games to normal games with multiplayer, although I would have loved Skyrim to come with Coop.
By the drill, Paul, I don’t mean instant hate mail. It just means that I will just like the podcast 50% less.
@Bioware confirms Mass Effect 3 is Origin-only: Why? I pre-ordered Mass Effect 3 on PC, but I really hate Origin. Oh well, I’ll have to live with it, but I really hope that the online multiplayer won’t be too bad with Origin.
@Electronic Arts passed $1B in digital sales in 2011: I’ve already said that I like my games in boxes, for the very same reasons you mentioned. And also, I’m paying extra for the box, CD and display? Bullshit! Deus Ex: Human Revolution pre-ordered was €34.45 from my online retailer. 5 months later, it is still €50 on Steam and only €16 from my online retailer. That’s €34 less for getting the game in the box. Digital distribution? No thanks.
@Gaikai: Sony or Microsoft won’t have next-gen console: And they are guessing once again. Also, I think that it’s a little bit too early for cloud gaming to catch on and appeal to the masses.
@“What was the first multiplayer gaming you ever enjoyed?”: I would have to say Heli Attack 3 on Miniclip. It technically isn’t a multiplayer, but my brother would shoot using the mouse and I would jump around the bullets. My computer was pretty crap back then and we had no consoles so flash games were pretty much all that I played.
@mass eff 3: in order to play the single player game is required a constant flow of an eletric courrent trough your computer or console. lol
The Battlelog is actually a good and innovative idea, the bad idea is Origin that requires a relativelly high portion of the PC’s processing power that could be used to help me run BF3 in high specs. That is what i like in Paul: he votes with his wallet, and stand for his principles no matter what. Damn you steam for not having BF3 and ME3 T.T.
What is wrong with CD’s? I still have my total annihilation in 2 epic CD-rom’s. INSTALLING THEM NAO
Dear Jordan, in 94, Brasil was already blessed with the NES and the Super NES.
@sony or microsoft no moar console:no comments. is a stupid rumor that will not come true, since both companies are rock solid on the console battleground and will not give up
@QOTW
1st enjoyed mp game: Counter-Strike… millions of hours wasted… WORTH IT