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.
After four years of development, 
@Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games:
Buying other companies/teams that have potential is sometimes easier (and more profitable) to do.
Everybody does that: the “Narbacular Drop” team developed Portal after being hired by Valve.
@Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on:
… so it’ll be a sort of Duke Nukem?
Dunno about this … if the location/universe is compelling enough, you can use different protagonists (see STALKER).
Then again, you have Serious Sam, Duke Nukem and Snake …
@PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
😛 yeah, they can’t afford to put a cell processor in it.
Jonah, the rear touch pad can act as a universal button.
@Netflix takes aim at usage based billing:
The fault lies with ISPs that don’t want to improve their infrastructure. At some point, while the existing ISPs increase fees, I can see new ones, with a modern infrastructure, coming in and killing the existing ones.
@Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3?s multiplayer:
It’s hard to find all glitches … some of them get discovered months after release.
@QOTW:
Dunno. Define old. If 2001 is old, then “Codename: Outbreak”. Its game mechanics were more advanced than the graphics it had, so I can see a remake of it having a bit of success.
If you mean older than 2001, then I would go ahead and say none. The reason is that the game mechanics evolved in time, and older games may be a bit too bad in that department. As an example of that, see Doom => Doom 3.
And yes, I am choosing only from FPS-es, because that’s what I like best.
Only Master Chief – I’m glad about this decision. I bought Halo : Reach and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the same as playing as Master Chief. Halo is very non-realistic, as I’m sure most people know, so when I played Reach and I found that defensive play was a better strategy, it took out some of the fun for me. I play on Legendary however so maybe the fact that I died easier made me more defensive. Nonetheless, I still think that playing as the last Spartan is really what makes the game.
Vita – I am going to agree with Jonah about the rear touch-screen, seems unnecessary and will only drive the price up. However, it could be used in many more ways that may make the system a big hit.
Netflix – If Netflix wants to make more money, good for them. They are a business and can do whatever they like with it. I can’t remember who said it but the existing customers will most likely look at the extra eight or nine dollars, shrug their shoulders, and pay the extra.
Glitcher Hired for MW3 – I’m glad that he has extra time to find glitches in the Multiplayer maps. The past couple games (excluding Black Ops) have been riddled with hacks and glitches that nearly ruined the online experience. Modern Warfare 2 was probably the game that suffered the most from it, so its nice to see that Infinity Ward is trying to take care of this one better. With that said, they did lose about half their staff during the year that MW2 was out, so patches for exploits probably weren’t to easy to put out. Back to MW3, even though he will find some glitches, there will always be new ones popping up for the year that it is out.
QOTW – @Herr Alien, I believe old was described as 1995 and older. I would like to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time remade. They did recently remake it, however the general consensus was that there wasn’t enough there to be a valid remake. I agree with that statement and I think it would be really nice to see this game done again, but better. I can always go back and play it on the SNES and still enjoy it, so I am not dying for a remake, but it would be nice.
On a side note, Zynga did make a play for Popcap.
Hiya Fellas,
First, for my buddy Paul:
http://www.allowe.com/Larry/troubleshooting.htm#Cauldron
Here it is, The Black Cauldron! I fully plan on committing several hours to enjoying this after I leave work. I’m sure my wife will understand. This is from Al Lowe’s website, and he was one of the game designers– so it’s legit! BTW Paul, Leonardo WAS the best turtle. So I can’t disagree with you on that!
For the QOTW- It’s funny. When Jonah first asked the question of the week, I thought “ZELDA!”, buuuut Paul already suggested it. I guess I’d like see a remake of an old “point and click” game I used to play on the NES called, “Shadowgate”. I’m not really sure how I would like to see this done, but with today’s technology (possibly Kinect) it might be a cool idea.
Or I’d like to see Rockstar do a remake of “The Oregon Trail”. That would be nothing short of ah-, wait for it, mazing!
There have been plenty of The Oregon Trail remakes. There’s a version on Facebook, the Nintendo DSi, Wii, and even Windows Phone 7.