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.
Hi guys.
Sorry for not writing a comment for such a long time 🙁 I am listening nearly to every episode, but really forget to write you a line .. sorry for that!
Regarding the topics in this episode:
Best Gamepad for me is the PS4 Gamepad. I have small Hands, so thats fine for me to handle it. The Switch Pro COntroller is nice as well, but after playing some hours, i feel some pain in my hands which i dont have playing with the ps4 Controller. The xbox Controller is a little bit too clunky to play with it for hours imho. The bigger size is not the problem, i think for me its the orientation of the buttons, especially the ones on the backside.
I am playing much WOW right now … i am not able to play Magic with real cards so WOW is a welcome time killer 🙂 In addition i am playing the new Ori Game, the new Doom and i want to start the FF7 Remake.
Regaridng Fall Out New Vegas: cant tell anything about it .. never played it .. should I ?
People are really playing more survival games during this Covid Period? Oh my god 😀 they should watch Walking dead instead .. haha 🙂
Regarding the grinding discussion: i play WOW and i played it 15 years ago so i know grinding very good 🙂 But at least if you are in Discord with some friends, talking and maybe watching som tv shows on a second screen, its not that hard and boring. But sure its sad, that you you have to grind at some points to get some good rewards 🙁
Thanks again for the nice and entertaining episode. Keep on guys and stay healthy 🙂
greetings from germany,
Ralf