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.

Comments

Mod submitter troll

[Mr_eX9]

Ensemble is not "the Halo Wars Studio." To call them that is an insult to their reputation.

Re:You're doing it wrong...

[Sparton]

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?)

Not quite. From TFA:

Microsoft called the planned closure a "fiscally-rooted" decision, while noting that a core Ensemble team will go on to form a new studio to provide support for Halo Wars and work on fresh projects.

Sounds more like Microsoft just wanted an excuse to get rid of everyone but the best and start anew.

Re:You're doing it wrong...

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA

From article:

"Following the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new entity and have agreed to partner with Microsoft to develop future products and provide support for Halo Wars post launch."

The article has additional information about the restructuring of the team.

MS Killing Off Xbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:MS Killing Off Xbox?

[dhavleak]

Dude, your post makes no sense. Why would MS want to stunt the xbox?

They let their one big developer Bungie leave to go work on multiplatform titles.

Bungie wanted to leave. MS allowed them to, kept the rights to Halo, and first right of refusal to Bungee games. It's better this way (for the xbox) -- Bungie remains a happy studio, and they make games for the xbox. The other way around, Bungie employees get pissed and leave, and MS is left with the skeleton.

The let Bizzare and Bioware leave exclusive Xbox development.

They don't get to choose this. Blizzard and Bioware can do whatever they want. MS and Sony usually pay huge sums of money for exclusive titles (on a per-title basis). More and more, they're both deciding it isn't worth it. Everybody wins this way of course -- 'cos more games are available on both platforms. If fact, MS is probably wagering that the Xbox live experience is the differentiator that makes people choose to buy non-exclusive titles on an xbox instead of a ps3. Either way, they've done the math and decided most exclusives aren't worth the price. They still do have exclusive titles when they are important enough (for example, Gears of War II).

They've shutdown other minor firstparty exclusive Xbox developers over the past year or two.

Sources? Anything??

Tecmo appears to be going full multiplatform now that Itagaki is gone.

Repeat after me: MS does not control independant studios, and this is Good Thing anyway.

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.

What's the point of having 20 first party studios if you don't even have 20 total games that are worth playing? I just don't understand your point. Are you trying to say there's a dearts of good titles for the Xbox? I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds.

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.

??

Remember that the xbox GPU is more powerful than the PS3 CPU. See here for details. It's normal for GPUs in the market to outstrip console GPU performance mid-way through the life of a console. You're trying to make some convoluted argument to support your statement about MS trying to kill the 360, but you're not making much sense.

btw: The new xbox dashboard, netflix "watch it now", gears of war II. Nothing new to show at game conferences over the past year?? There's more, but your claim isn't worth responding to.

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.

Do you actually beleive what you just wrote? Look, at this point, I assume you're a PS3 fanboi. That's fine. Why can't you just enjoy your PS3 without dissing the 360? Think about it -- without stiff competition from the xbox, the PS3 itself wouldn't be as awesome as it is. And remember that MS's efforts have brought us the Halo series, GoW, Xbox live. By what yardstick do you think they are wasting their time??