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.
@Do it like it’s 2013
It’s good to see Nintendo finally getting it’s stuff together. But I still say they missed their chance. They had a large release advantage over Xbox One and PS4 and they wasted it. They are now forever cursed to play catch up.
@All your videos are belong to us
I kick this right into the lawyer’s ball park. I remember the days of the Xbox and PS2, when I gave developers money for their game and that was the end of our interaction. But the modern game industry spawned this horrible mutation of gaming, where developers still have a considerable impact on my gaming experience post release. After Xbox 360 I got used to continuous updates. But it keeps getting worse. The gaming industry is nurturing it’s own Big Brother, which is largely controlled by non-gaming people. No good will come of this.
@Cell Games
I agree with Jonah. I was impressed with the inFamous games. But I didn’t see any differences between multiplatform titles. Cell was a poor choice for Sony; much like HD DVD was for Xbox 360. I am eager to pick up a PS4 and see what Sony’s new hardware is capable off.
@Plus one Paul!
Earlist thing I remember. How long has it been since then? I will miss Paul. He brought a very unique and interestig point of view to the gaming industry. I learned a lot about game development from him. I also realised that I never want to be a game developer. Good luck to you Paul. And get a proper job. It’s time you started puling your weight for the economy (mandatory hate mail).