Halo Wars will never make the journey from console to PC, according to the game's lead developer. We spoke to Ensemble's Graeme Devine at a Microsoft press event last week, and enquired about the possibility of a port in the near future:
"Zero. Never. I'm going to go on the record and say never ever! Microsoft may go and announce it, but I'll say never."
Another romp in the Halo universe... The last time gamers got to have a fresh frolic in the Halo universe may have been well over a year ago, but there’s still some more series titles on the gaming horizon...
Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios are on course to ship their strategy take on the Halo universe this February, and they're readying one hell of a Limited Collector's Edition for those willing to drop a little extra coin. $79.99 gets you the game, six leader cards, a Spirit of Fire patch, a Halo Wars: Genesis graphic novel, and the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack, which comes with “Assembly,” “Orbital” and “Sandbox”.
We know, Halo Wars' cinematics look great, but what we really needed to see was how the thing worked. This vid shows how it works. There's a "circle menu" that drives most of the game's commands, and the whole thing looks it just might avoid being a total disaster.
It was just revealed at the Tokyo Game Show that the long, long delayed Halo Wars (whose developer has had a bit of a struggle) will be releasing to the Xbox 360 EARLY 2009. Got that fellow fanboys, EARLY 2009 and you can bet we're going to hold Ensemble and Microsoft to that.
I suppose I was a bit overarching with the sheep comment. Looking back on it now, I probably didn't need to say that. I was just a bit concerned that the price went down for the wrong reasons. Anyway, It doesn't matter much to me since I don't have too much invested in this stock. I leave everyone to do whatever they wish.
So, when people agree with someone (me, for this instant), which is against your opinion, you are calling them "a bunch of sheep" ? Your way of convincing people does not have to include insulting people (someone, not me, downbidded you, and I think the cause is your "bunch of sheep" statement).
I don't think this sudden drop is cause ONLY by the studio closing fact. If you look at the stock price movement, the price is 267 about one month ago (August 12). As of now, the price is 265, more or less the same as one month ago. This means that people are countering the steady increase in the last 2 weeks. When the price is 267, no big downward pressure, since people think the price is right. When it reached 300, people see sufficient profit margin from overprice, so people started to shorted them.
In other words, it is just business as usual, and not related to studio "closing". IMO.
So when was it decided upon that the stock would sink 15% in one day, just because the studio is "closing?" First of all, it's not like Ensemble was dismantled/rearranged for developing poor selling titles (e.g. FASA). Second of all, the recent news should have no real bearing on the sales of the game except for those who proclaim on the internet, "No, I will not buy this game because the Man$oft (wow, did that sound weird to anyone else?) shut down my favorite studio etc. etc."
It has been stated that there will be a crew to support the game after it comes out, so it's not like there won't be balance patches, or DLC - typical RTS stuff.
Again, I reiterate that this news about the company should NOT have a bearing on the sales of the game. If there was Ensemble stock on theSimexchange, that would be a different story, but seeing how there's not, I suppose people flock to this game to sell their shares (fairly) cheap and "try to get out early."
Somebody else see my reason and don't just be a bunch of sheep.
@noobie, Well, I am just saying that they continue to shift focus away from the PC based on what they have done. Ensemble and a couple other of Microsoft's old development houses (e.g. FASA and Digital Anvil) were originally bought to increase focus on the PC market and now they are clearing them from the house. In addition, add-on things like virtual boycotts on porting of 360 games to the PC (e.g. Halo 3). Not to mention their lukewarm attempts at looking like they have an interest in the PC market (e.g. GfW being majorly a way of just connecting with the 360). And add-on the previously stated reasoning of the money factor.
And I agree with your previous statement of Microsoft just merely taking their development houses and dissolving them and throwing them together in one big pot as Microsoft Game Studios - this is exactly what happened to Digital Anvil. (Actually, if you look, Microsoft is doing almost the exact same thing with Ensemble as they did with Digital Anvil - both were closed by Microsoft after successful game launches for their most recent games, both had a focus on PC, both released an Xbox title as their last title, and both had their employees "redistributed/redeployed within MGS.")
@lstormy10, I wander if any upper level people will stick around.. i think most of them are going to go around... and i believe it will also adversely effect the morale of the remaining few 1st party game studios... Lastly anything which gives you profit is usually not chopped... Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires have sold over 20 million copies... thats really a lot of revenue.. But surely we can only speculate what is MS upto.
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