This episode is chock full of obscure games. Did you ever hear of the MMO Ever, Jane? No? Well, this week’s Gaming Podcast features Roogoo, a game that was delisted from Xbox Live Arcade a year after it was released and is available on Steam for 99 cents.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think here.
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?
The gaming podcast crew takes a look back at Ultima Online and a bit of history on Kirby, that crazy pink mascot. This weeks gaming news includes:
PS2 the most played console of 2008This weeks soap box we’re talking about gaming in the workplace, wouldn’t you want a Rock Band tournament? Also, ton of user comments this week — keep them coming!
The longest title recorded on the books, let’s hope it fits! 🙂 This week we covered the gaming history for Adventures of Lolo and a bit about HAL Labratory all in honor of a new game we recently purchased to play with our kids: Kirby’s Epic Yarn. So far so good, our son is enjoying 2-player mode with us. This week we did an on-the-spot mini-review breakdown of Kirby’s Epic Yarn while hitting up some gaming news including:
Of course, a special thanks for Herr Alien and all his news posts this week, we got a bunch of them into the show. This week’s question o’ the week, what musician/group would you like to see featured in a video game and what genre would fit them?
