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.
Hey guys great episode, lots to respond to, I agree with you Jonah on the perspective of those that way to hire people already working. It does make a person seem very disloyal but that doesn’t seem to be a valued thing anymore.
@Returns: I have no problem admitting to making bad choices so I don’t make up excuses either when returning something. Though most of the time it’s a faulty product for whatever reason. I think I’ve gotten myself to the point where I am very careful about impulse buying without ensuring I like or really need this. With Games I’m always trying to do the Demo or watch YouTube videos of a game, but I have had games bought that I wanted to return and now I even have some on my steam list. I may have to do some trading to clean that list up a bit.
@Gameplay versus Story: This seems a balancing act at times; there are games that had great story but painful gameplay (Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver). Then games with great game mechanic but weird story like Eternal Sonata. It’s great when a game has both, I think story is the bitch as Paul said as so many a lot of times skip or ignore to get back to playing the game.
@Valve: I am glad they are doing this to help clean out some of the crap that seems to get through, in complete games and games that just should never have been started; I’m looking at goat Simulator there. I agree that you shouldn’t have to pay to beta test something. I do feel like this whole early access and beta testing is getting abused and allowing lazy game developing to happen. Beta testing is a skill set because you need people that are not only willing but actively look for ways to break a game or do things the game designers didn’t intend to happen.
@Sony getting hacked: On one hand I do want these companies to have better security for their customers but on the other it really isn’t right for hackers to be giving out password information either. I don’t trust these hackers motives either, and I am experiencing similar password changing/managing exhaustion as you guys as well.
http://www.geek.com/news/sony-just-got-hacked-doxxed-and-shut-down-1610274/
(I like the idea of a Pastabin, let’s do a Kickstarter for it)
@Game Devaluation: I wonder if Beyond Earth is considered a AAA game or not, since I got it digitally it was $54, nowhere near 35 much less 22. I think they’ve only recently been put on sale for lower prices for Black Friday, and of course it’s priced differently US, UK, EU and Aus all have different prices for said game. I do expect digital games to be cheaper than physical copies of the game. This also reminds me of an article where we maybe don’t value games as much as we used to due to very cheap prices and how easy it is to have a collection of a 100 games on your steam list and you’ve maybe only played a handful. That when we were children it was much harder to get a game, often you’d only have one and you played it bugs and all because that was your game. I’ve gotten a few of these bundled games and I have to admit I don’t feel the huge desire to play them much if at all. I don’t feel that same desire I did as a child when I would do extra chores and save up money just to buy ONE game.
@QotW: I would have to say my favorite Game based Cartoon would be “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”. I loved that she wasn’t a typical Villain, she seemed to encourage the kids to try and catch her and you were learning stuff about the world as well as being entertained. I also hated the way they depicted Simon in Captain N, I think I found the “Icky” Pit and “Mega” to everything very annoying, it could be that I was slightly older at the time 8-10 so I think that act was wearing thin. I did love the Zelda Cartoon but vote goes to Carmen for helping me learn more about the world around me.