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?
Hi guys.
As always: thank you very much for the episode 🙂
I am playing not that much at the moment, but some rounds of Magic the Gathering Arena and some rounds of WoW are always there 🙂 I also started playing Itorah, which is a very nice Metroidvania game.
Regarding your topics:
Walking Simulators: I really like those games. For me games like “Life is strange” , “Journey”, “Heavy Rain” or “Detroid become human” were awesome and i played all of them. Most of them have a fantastic atmosphere, good story, awesome music and i did not get bored or it feels repetitive.
Fifa:
I cant describe how less i care about that 😀
I never played any Fifa since i had one about 20 years ago for the PS1. The best soccer game of all time still is “World Cup” for NES oder GameBoy 🙂
Starfield:
It seems that i am the only person who is not hyped for that game … nearly all my friends are waiting for it since it was announced.
All the other topics:
Cant say anything useful or interesting about them… sorry 🙂
Keep healthy and keep on with the good work guys.
Greetings from germany,
Ralf
I’m hoping to see Starfield footage at the Microsoft/Bethesda show in June, even if the game is delayed.