As promised, the second half of the two hour long podcast, in which there’s a long, long ramble about pop culture and potential future specials with Paul and company.
The other news items included in the podcast are:
The next podcast will be recorded live at E3’s show floor in two weeks – stay tuned!
Ensemble Studios, owned and operated by Microsoft or, Microsoft Games Studios, has been targed to be dissolved. All employees will find new homes, a large quantity will start a new studio and continue maintaining the later released Halo Wars franchise.
Microsoft has chosen to close the studio as part of their growth plan of Microsoft Games Studios much like FASA was closed in the past. The difference, there is a new landing point for Halo Wars unlike the uncertain future of Shadowrun.
Commenting on the reason for the closure, Microsoft said, “This was a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.” (gamespot)
Ensemble Studio’s folks will continue to work with Microsoft and will continue to support Halo Wars after its launch. It is important to stress their statement of continuing to support Halo Wars, there is no need to think the project will be done half-assed or without pride as the project will live on with a different studio name.
The only question is… what is causing Microsoft to close down studios with actively working real franchise projects? FASA went down, Bungie was let go on their own and now Ensemble Studios? There has to be something going on here… idea?
This week lacks Paul, but has plenty of good show, as Jordan refuses to believe in the magic of the old adventure game Alter Ego. This week’s game of the week is inspired by the Kickstarter reboot, as the gang discusses the classic Battle Chess.
As for the news:
All this, plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week, “What is your favorite free-to-play game?”
This week we’re missing Don but we’re making up for it with pure awesome. Well, we’re taking a flashback look at Buck Bumble and the history of Argonaut Games. We’re busting through some community feedback and covering a few news tidbits:
This week’s question of the week is simple: Will DS products change the life of those in prison?
Thank you for mentioning me!
I referenced the part from episode 423 regarding Jesse Eisenberg in American Ultra where he’s paranoid/anxious until he gets his weed and how stoners can get paranoid after they’re high and think cops are coming.
My user name was supposed to have a cool “A” as 4, so it would read as “Lad”; I was using this user name before Left 4 Dead was publicly announced, and my Steam account is ]_4]), but I don’t like to tell people this for fear of hacking…
Regrading politics, I’ve seen your support for Hillary, so I do not want to discuss politics, but my main issue against Hillary is that she might be part of the New World Order; I hope she is not a member, since she will most likely be the next president…
I neglected to state my Steam account creation date, which is 4/14/2004. I have a similarly named Gmail account with L4d in it, which was created around that time, too.
Is there a way to edit these comments?