There really wasn’t all that much going on this week in terms of hard news, but there was a bunch of mini-items that got discussed, as well as a Gaming Flashback of the terrifying game Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
What little news this week had included:
Let us know what you think.
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.
Gaming Podcast, we get some impressions about gaming reviews and media from our listeners while tackling the gaming flashback 10-Yard Fight for the arcade and NES. We ran out of time on our four stories and didn’t get our gaming history in yet.
This weeks question of the week, what do you think of blaming video game failures on the economy?
This week’s episode has no news, despite the beginning of 2019 having some earth-shattering news items, which will be discussed next week, probably.
Instead, Jonah, TJ and Scott talk about their favorite games of 2018. Let us know which game was your favorite last year.
Hi Guys.
Thank you very much as always for the episode. I appreciate the work you put into every episode every week, and i am sorry,
that i can´t listenm to every episode as fast as i want to 🙁
Regarding the topics:
I played a lot of WoW (damn drug), amd since last week a loooot of MTG Arena, because the new set is out and its awesome 🙂
In addition i played some Ori and The Will of the Wisp and a lot of Last of Us 2. And of course some rounds of Jackbox Party, which was really fun!
Space Invaders:
I grew up with this, it was my first game on Atari 2600 back in the 80s 🙂
But paying so much money for a colored version … naaaarrr .. dont think so 🙂
Maybe if it will come to steam and there will be a sale 🙂
Gaming Flashback:
I never even heard of the name of the game … mhmm .. strange. But Regarding Doom: i was not able to play it back in the 90s, because the sound made me sick, i mean really sick. These bass-like sound for a longer time, made me feel like i had to puke 🙁
Shroud & Ninja & Mixer:
These guys have enough money for the rest of their lives … so .. i dont care where they will go, they will have their fans anywhere 🙂
I don´t like Mixer at all, can´t say why, but the “look and feel” is not mine. I can´t say how it was for the streamer, i am only telling my opinion as a viewer.
The only time i go on mixer, is playing JackBox party with Jonah.
SF5:
I loved to watch Street Fighter Tournaments, expecially the EVO or Capcom Cup … i don´t think that the same feelings come over with a online stream. Sadly it´s the best thing they can do right now during this situation.
And yes, SF4 was way more better than SF5 in my opinion!
Thanks again, its always fun, listening to you gus, having fun and hearing your opinion on all these topics 🙂
Stay healthy and i hope to hear from you next week.
Greetings,
Ralf