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.
Guitar Hero III hits
Jonah,
I have to say I am a bit offended at your blanket statement about The Sims fans all being a bunch of 14 year old girl Bieber fans. I’ll have you know we are 30 something old bieber fans, j/k. There really are a wide age range of Sims fans. While the game as Paul said was made to be easier and accessible to a broader range of fans doesn’t mean the game is simple. People have made Machinama’s, Legacy families, build challenges, etc. Proof is also in some sites catering to the more Adult things you can do with the Sims, I won’t list the sites to keep this clean but Google around and I’m sure you’ll find what I mean.
I’d like to answer both this week’s question and last weeks since they both interest me:
This Weeks: I was going to first say Facebook Games but they seem to be dying nicely on their own. Instead I wouldn’t mind to see all FPS games die in a fire, I wouldn’t miss any of them. The last one I really played was Doom I. After that they all pretty much seem the same and very boring. Listening to you guys talk about Halo and MasterChef I couldn’t see what was the appeal about the game or MC as a Iconic character. When I play a game I want to be Indiana Jones or Bond, I don’t want to be me in the game.
Last Week’s: For me the golden age would be like Paul’s with the SNES and it’s plethora of RPG games. Jordan is in for a real treat playing CT for the first time, I wish I could do that as well. The SNES was a time when I felt that I belonged to the gaming community. I loved CT, FF4 and FF6 games. After release of N64 I felt like FPS was taking over and becoming the game genre to make. Adventure seemed to die after that era. I later felt solace with the PS1 and DS games for my adventure and RPG needs.
To sum up I feel like FPS has displaced me as market for games because I am too old and slow to “get” FPS games and Adventure/RPG doesn’t make enough money by comparison.
Re: Blizzard not rolling back Diablo III game data.
I like that they have chosen not to punish everyone who didn’t use the exploit. It makes me think that Blizzard actually cares about its customers.
Re: Obsidian desires to make Star Wars Rpg.
The question is will they be allowed to and can they afford the price that EA will probably charge for the rights to make it?
Hey guys,
I missed last week’s QOTW so maybe I’ll give my answer as Alphasard did.
Golden era of games: It’s so hard to choose. I’ve been playing games on and off for the most part of my life. I played a lot of Atari, C64, then (S)NES but I think I became aware of what I was really playing and I started actively looking for particular games in the late 90’s, earliy 2000’s. I already mentioned my love of adventure games and that’s when I found Broken Sword, the Monkey Island series, Jack Orlando, Syberia, etc. I also loved Heroes of Might and Magic III and I played a lot of NFS: Hot Pursuit. Somewhere around 2002 I stopped upgrading my PC and I didn’t really play any new stuff… Until I bought a PS3 3 years ago and I can play all the new releases without having to worry about hardware which is great. This is my gaming renaissance, so to speak.
Genre I’m burnt out on: I would have to say sports games. I’m an NHL fan and I played the EA Sports games since 1998. I bought NHL11 for my PS3, I played a while but I found many better games to play. I think I haven’t played a single game in over a year. I enjoyed FIFA and NBA games back in the day as well but I’m not drawn to them anymore.
Question from the reader: Do you think that the E3 this year is going to be a big event? Could it be too damn big with the new generation consoles playing a huge part in it? (Sorry Jonah, couldn’t resist 😉 )