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Halo Wars (Xbox 360)
Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...
Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...
Shack News - September 9, 2008
Submitted by noobie (468) at 5:05PM PST on September 9, 2008
Shacknews has learned via multiple independent reports that developer Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) will shut down operation following the release of its upcoming title Halo Wars.
According to sources, employees not associated with Halo Wars have been laid off today. Those attached to Halo Wars have been offered incentives to stay on the project until completion.
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1noobie posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 5:51PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@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.[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 468 ]bids
1lstormy10 posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 5:34PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@apujanata,
Just look at Microsoft's recent activities. They are paying less attention to the PC market than ever. For good reason though, because they can make more money off of pushing the Xbox 360 where they control hardware, accessories, licensing, and more.
@apujanata,
I don't know why they completely closed Ensemble Studios, but they obviously have plans for the leftovers of Ensemble - use some of the upper level people to create a new developer with a different focus and then distribute the lower level people around Microsoft for various other projects.[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 294 ]bids
1noobie posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 5:12PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@apujanata,
Look like they are either trying to consolidate all the game development resources in one large entity or they are going to kill the gaming division altogether...
But you are right saying scalable ventures is very vague and can be interperated in lot of different ways.. But the worst lost is for the Age of Empires fanbase..[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 468 ]bids
2apujanata posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 4:06PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@lstormy10,
From here :
"it became clear to us that closing the studio and redeploying those resources to other more scalable ventures is the right thing for our business at this time"
What is other more scalable ventures ? How does this statement could be interpreted to mean "more console focus" ?[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
1apujanata posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 3:58PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@lstormy10,
Can you tell me WHY they need to close ensemble and making a new company ? I couldn't think of any scenario in which it is necessary for a company to close shop, and open a new shop. The easiest way is just do a share swap / buyout.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
1lstormy10 posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 12:41PM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@noobie,
Bungie was not a closure - Bungie bought the rest of themselves from Microsoft to become independent.
@apujanata,
I believe the intention is the direct opposite of what you said. Instead of dropping out of the console market, I believe this is a move to bring more of their resources to work on the console market and less on the PC market (which was the entirety of Ensemble's focus before Halo Wars).[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 294 ]bids
1mrahaju posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 3:19AM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@welshbloke,
Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today's statement, the studio said that "the leadership team" will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with Microsoft to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."
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."[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 9 ]bids
1welshbloke posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 2:38AM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@apujanata,
What happened to the staff of the previous closures? Did most of them reshuffle to within Microsoft and is this simply a case of Microsoft restructuring attempting to strengthen the Microsoft game development as a brand? I am inclined to believe that the staff are being redeployed.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 60 ]bids
1apujanata posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 2:21AM PST on September 10, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@noobie,
Maybe they think they don't need to build (self develop) exclusive, since they can buy exclusive ?
Or maybe they no longer plan to compete in the console market ? (No X720, like Pacter predicted)
It could be any reason, even one that we didn't think of.
"This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of Halo Wars"
In my general experience, quality of this game should be affected by the shut-down, since it usually affect morale (when you need to find job, you couldn't put 120% of your effort into your current work). I am inclined to believe in BIG negative impact, so I shorted this stock some more.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 14935 ]bids
2noobie posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 11:20PM PST on September 9, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@sagexsdx,
I think this is the 4th big gaming studio closure by MS in last 1 yr... first Bungie, then FASA then i think carbonated games was closed and now this Ensemble is getting disbanded... totally strange policy by MS XBOX division.. i wander what they are upto[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 468 ]bids
1sagexsdx posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 9:13PM PST on September 9, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...bids
5noobie posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 7:02PM PST on September 9, 2008. RE: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...@noobie,
Confirmation has come quick and fast in regard to rumors surfacing earlier today that Microsoft would be closing its internal developer Ensemble Studios upon the completion of sci-fi real-time strategy game Halo Wars. In joint statements issued today, Microsoft and Ensemble have confirmed that the studio will be shut down once the Xbox 360-exclusive RTS set in the best-selling Halo franchise ships out early next year.
"The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars," the publisher said in a statement. "This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of Halo Wars--in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game."
Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today's statement, the studio said that "the leadership team" will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with Microsoft to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."
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."
As noted earlier today, the Age of Empires brand has sold more than 20 million units since the first installment debuted on the PC in 1997. According to the NPD Group, Ages of Empires III for the PC has sold 1.15 million units in the US alone through July 2008, with The Warchiefs expansion tallying nearly 305,000 more. (The second expansion, Asian Dynasties, was developed by Rise of Nations creators Big Huge Games.)
Link[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 468 ]bids
16noobie posted on Halo Wars (Xbox 360) at 5:05PM PST on September 9, 2008. Article: Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, ...Shacknews has learned via multiple independent reports that developer Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) will shut down operation following the release of its upcoming title Halo Wars. According to sources, employees not associated with Halo Wars have been laid off today. Those attached to Halo Wars have been offered incentives to stay on the project until completion.[ Oracle ] [ Level 20 ] [ Rank: 468 ]
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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.")