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Microsoft To Close Halo Wars Studio
Shacknews reports that Ensemble Studios, developer of the Age of Empires series, will be shut down by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) as soon as the upcoming Halo Wars title is complete. Microsoft execs said parts the team would continue to work with MGS. Halo Wars is scheduled for early 2009, and Eurogamer took a look at the Halo-styled RTS game last month.
Ensemble is not "the Halo Wars Studio." To call them that is an insult to their reputation.
I hear they are breaking off to make Age of Ensemble.
Pussy Nazi Sez
No pussy for YOU!
Ha, right, because it's sooooo easy to picture you anonymously trolling on Slashdot during orgy breaks.
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Microsoft was just purging its useless-eaters.
We have ways for making people like you disappear also.
How could I not have heard of this? This has to be a joke. You can stick ANY genre on Halo and it'll probably sell?
Halo Dating Sim! (You know you want to.)
What manager thought it would be a good idea to announce, before the product shipped, that -
Doesn't this pretty much guarantee that Halo Wars will be late (delayed by people who don't want to lose their jobs), full of glitches (since devs don't have to worry about the ramifications), and avoided by customers (who will know that the product is DOA?)
I thought this gaffe was only a software engineering myth. I'm gonna have to bookmark this post for future reference :) ...
- David Stein
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
I'm sad to see them go. Age of Empires 2 was a great game. I still load it up from time to time. They had plans to make an AoE 4, but I guess we won't be seeing that.
We could go on all day...
It is hard to believe that Microsoft is doing anything other than killing off the Xbox one piece at a time.
They let their one big developer Bungie leave to go work on multiplatform titles.
The let Bizzare and Bioware leave exclusive Xbox development.
They've shutdown other minor firstparty exclusive Xbox developers over the past year or two.
Tecmo appears to be going full multiplatform now that Itagaki is gone.
That leaves Microsoft with just Rare, Lionhead, and Turn 10. Maybe one more.
Compare that to Nintendo who has 10 first party studios.
And even worse to Sony who now has 20 or so first party studios.
It should be obvious why Microsoft has had virtually nothing new to show at game conferences over the past year. Getting 360 ports of PC games isn't going to do anything in the console market - especially now that even mid range PC graphics are far beyond 360 game levels.
Perhaps Microsoft has finally decided they need to stop wasting their time in the console market and will start to turn their attention back to PC gaming.
They need to make a game actually called Red Ring, to follow up their earlier hit Blue Screen.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Have some whine to go with that red herring.
Nuclear engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.
We're closing the studio as soon as this game is done. Try to reach the deadline please.
Executive logic continues to elude me.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
The bigger news is the status of Microsoft Game Studios. 1st party titles make the console, more or less. Online is pretty important, sure, and the aesthetics have something to do with it, I guess, but gamers aren't (complete) idiots. That's right, we're devoted fanboys. So let's be clear - nothing makes a console more attractive than a strong, non-multiplatform game. Like MGS? Sony has a console they'd like to sell you. Halo fan? Microsoft looks pretty nice, eh?
Well, the problem with this news isn't that Ensemble (one of my favorite RTS devs) is closing down - that's a damn shame, sure, but the real news is that Microsoft has lost yet another 1st party game developer. Bungie? Gone. Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing)? Toodleloo! Now, Ensemble no longer exists. What studios does MS have left? Where is the appeal? Exactly what in the hell is happening over at MGS?
To me, it seems like MGS is getting bit in the ass by their rather authoritarian style of management. MS has been notorious (in the past few years) for pushing unfinished games out the door, delaying games so it can be released on a better schedule for them, and basically pushing around their own dev teams. Bungie (quite literally the entire studio) threatened resignation if they were not given independence (looking at Halo 2/3, it's obvious to see why their so jaded towards MGS). Hell, even after Bungie became independent, they're still being forced around by MS (see: recent Bungie announcement cancellation). It seems to me that the creative types are getting sick of the MS abuse. Maybe this is just wild speculation, but knowing how MS operates, it all seems to line up in my head. Time will tell.
HALOllujah!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
thing the "HexBox"/"HexedBox"...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Microsoft now says that it will shut down developer Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) following the end of work on the company's upcoming RTS Halo Wars.
People use AoE as a generic term but there were several releases of which I loved AoE, AoE2: The Rise of Kings and Age of Mythology. AoM was one of the best selling RTSes for a good time (and so were the AoE* titles).
It's a shame that the staff is mostly being let go. Who's next? Bungie?
Studios that have recently left Microsoft for one reason or another in the last 12 months:
FASA (Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, Mech Warrior, Mech Commander)
Bungie (H A L O, Marathon)
Ensemble (Halo Wars, Age of Empires, Age of Mythology)
Hired Gun (Halo 2 Vista)
Any others?
-516
Maybe AOE3 less so, but Age of Empires 1 and 2 were great. Just because a studio focused on RTSs doesn't seem to fit in so well with the Xbox-focused future... That means Microsoft really doesn't have any studios left?
They should really do something else with Ensemble aside from sell them. Actually, Microsoft still has Big Huge Games? *checks* Nope, they're under THQ now...
I doubt you even knew what one looked like until mommy bought you your first computer so I don't know what you're getting on about.
a buddy of mine is part of that team.
sucky part is that they did some crap stuff to the team along with announcing the closure.
besides the fact that they are forced to work on the game until it ships, they are still uber proud of the product. but the bit 'm' did them wrong in how they shut down the studio. good ol micro-s, what will you ruin next.
Sounds to me more that they are shutting down typical PC gaming like some forms of RTS, and aiming for a more consoleable kind of games.