Ensemble dev speaks out on closure

There has to be a valid reason. Seriously think about it. Think of baseball...why would the Boston Red Sox give up Manny Ramirez...arguably the best hitter in baseball. He had mental issues and was messing up team chemistry. I bet that Shelley was not aware of some other things that we don't all know about that got in the way of them making good games. Sure they were good in making Age of Empire Games...but maybe they had some problems with staff and leadership that was causing them to have problems. It could very be that they were costing too much money to make Halo Wars than expected revenue could warrant. Remember, no matter what NOBODY is making games cause for you...they are making them for YOU to buy. If they are spending too much money to make the game and they don't expect alot of sales (RTS games have had a tough time of it lately in selling well), they might have to rethink having Ensemble in the house. Shelley said they had low turn over and a solid team...that means long time pay increases so these guys could have been very pricey to keep and thus their pay to develop is too high. Being a game developer its more than you think. It sucks to see them go but I am sure they will get money from some publisher to pump out games. They have a track record, they won't hurt. I just think it is sad from a historical point of view.

That sucks.

Oh , didn't know , just checked on Wikipedia says they have gone independent from October 1,2007 , that's almost a year now , with microsoft holding a minor share in the studio , so probably no worries for them , but still planting a bad seed among publishers to knock off even their profit-making studios :(

wow, microsoft is evil, even to its profitable studios, no wonder bungie left them, smart move bungie. Ensemble shold have followed suit before being closed down

MS is not doing a good move with this, they should make more studios rather than close down studios, they clearly don't know how this industry works still.

it would be good if MS could release the name so ensemble can carry on, this new start up will be basically ensemble with a different name, it will suck to have to build a reputation up again.

I'm glad they may be going independent, then they don't have to worry about morons like MS to close them down.

And thank you Bruce Shelley , You said everything we gamers felt and wanted to say ! :(

Well , thanks microsoft , you just destroyed job security among all game developers , now even bungie developers can't have piece of mind while working ! :(

yes sony allows more freedom. and their games suck big time. (like haze)microsoft is the best publisher right now imo.

Well ... hopefully sonys scoops them up.

Wow, Shocking I could understand the closing of FASA and all (ShadowRun though I did like it was a pretty slim effort would have faired better with a Battletech game IMHO) But, such is the way of MS

Another Age of Empires or Age of Mythology, there is so much potential in Ensemble, man, its my favourite developer hand-in-hand with bethesda.

Dear microsoft, f*** you

its hard to say goodbye to an old friend. We'll miss you Ensomble

It's a hard life for developers, especially for independent ones. Most studios let you go after a game is completed and your on the look out for the next project. I understand why Ensemble went under MS wing, a sense of security is a powerful thing, and a little peace of mind go's a long way in this unstable business. I wish them good luck, with hopes that they can recover from this, and make their next masterpiece. Salute.

I blame the economy. Vote Obama!!

Somehow, with a team that knows its out of a job after this project, I don't think Halo Wars will be quite as good as it normally would have. Why does Microsoft insist on making people hate it? How can a company have such a bad PR team?

I wonder if some of the team will work with Peter Jackson on the unannounced Halo game.

That's messed up.

Well this is a bit of a shame world69star69 - I am sure they would but it would be a bit difficult given the US economies state at the moment.

Seriously the ensemble devs should form a new company and make games exclusivly for pc (their platform of choice) and Sony (just to spite MS and the fact that they allow more freedom with development, and appriciate their dev teams... Seriously this would be like sony closing down naughty dog or insomniac.. never happen) MS is seriously greedy, if this pays for the 3fixme price drop I hope for 90%rrod! MS hates games on windows as they don't get licensing fees like on xbox. They did this with FSAA too, only then they had them work on a crappy 5map online only shooter that flopped and then shut them down after they had them make a game that was an abomination of the name it stood for(shadowrun is a hardcore pnp rpg, they made it into a halo quake3 clone.)

Well i was wrong in my assumption as to why Ensemble shut its doors. FU MS ... FU

To me, this doesn't make sense, though I understand thats how the business world works. But why close down a company that actually makes good quality games?

That was screwed up man. How could MS do that?

Officially, Microsoft = first-party EA

The closing of ES is BS!!! F*** MS!! I use Linux as my OS!!

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Thats really sad

What sucks is that the developers will never want to make a game for xbox or pc again. Most likely will turn to PS3 just to piss microsoft off when they see what great games they could've had

I still say they close Ensemble because they are shift to Xbox. Why lose their Age of Empires and Halo customers other wise?

Well there are three types of game making corporations these days: 1) Those that think only about how to make loads of money (prime example: EA) 2) Those that think about making quality games and making loads of money in the process (Blizzard) 3) And those rare gems that think about creating quality product no matter how long it takes and that put quality above all else (Valve) Unfortunately Micro$oft in under group no.1

what the hell is wrong microsoft ? did all of you smoked pot.

smooth move microsoft

"The decision, as I understand it, was based on several major factors," Shelley said. "First, they want to divert the headcount tied up in [Ensemble] and the costs that are expected to be required to run [Ensemble] for the next few years into other projects. Second, it sounded like it cost more to run [Ensemble] on a per-person basis than other first-party studios (Rare, Lionhead, Forza, Flight Sim), putting us at a disadvantage. (Plus they avoid the expense of a new office that we were planning.) And third, games those studios are expected to deliver in the next few years are expected to be more strategic and profitable to the company than anything we would be finishing after Halo Wars." -------------- Wow, that's pretty crappy of MS to just close Ensemble like that. I mean it's not like they were making Big Rigs or some other crap game. They created one of the best and often imitated RTSs of the past 10 years, Age of Empires.

Starting a new company in an economy where banks are scared to death to loan anyone any money is going to be very hard. Cost per employee? I wonder if Microsoft is looking at picking up studios in India and Brazil?

Why couldn't they just do what they did with Bungie?

Age of Empires II is my favorite game of all time, and Halo is runner up. I was extremely looking forward to Halo Wars. However, the earlier decision to make it 360 exclusive really turned me down. Now, the closing of Ensemble made me want to boycott all MS products, including this game.

wow...... microsoft you just sacked a good team ........ lets give you a pat on the back (sarcasm):angry:

boooooo *hissss* booooooo! lets throw melons at something!

The one side of the gaming industry the Gamer has little control over: the buisness side

this is not cool

Great job MS, shutting down an amazing developer. Almost as bad as EA and Westwood.

d kell411- I understand that closing Ensemble feels like a bad move, even to me. But that's a horrible thing to wish for, that MS gets put out of business.

i think microsoft sucks ive played ensables games for years and if i were them id refuse to finish halo wars.i think mirosoft games for windows is a flop they create this platform for the almighty vista platform and vista is a programers mistake a bunch of mediocre ideas poured in to one bowl and called an operating system .i think ensamble should take all its talent and ideas and form an independant companty and get backing from blizzard or id software and continue there great games

Well that takes the heart out of "Halo Wars". Finish this game first, then well cut you loose. I know I'd stop caring about the project. Just do enough to get that pay check. All the while looking for my next job. MS that was a very a'hole move. May karma slap you silly.