Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

[Flawless]

Shacknews

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 our 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.

Halo Wars, an RTS based on the Halo franchise, was announced in September of 2006. The Xbox 360 title is currently slated for release sometime in the first half of 2009.

Ensemble Studios was founded in 1995. The Microsoft-owned company is best known for the Age of Empires series of RTS games.

Shacknews has contacted both Microsoft and Ensemble for comment, but has not yet received a reply.

If this is true, Microsoft is ******** for shutting down such a talented studio, and one that created a huge franchise in Age of Empires that has sold over 20 million. Also, I would be concerned about how Halo Wars would turn out. Even if those employees got a bonus to stay and work on the game, they can't exactly be happy.

[Altimus]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Booooo!

Age of the Empires kicked ***.

[Flawless]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Confirmed: Microsoft closes Ensemble

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.)

Ensemble has been a Microsoft-owned studio since 2001.

[Eton Rifles]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Um, Microsoft has enough of a problem producing good first party titles and then they close their best developer? Something just doesn't make sense to me here.

[Flawless]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Well, Ensemble has no previous experience developing for a console. Halo Wars will be their first. Maybe Microsoft is shifting all focus towards Xbox development, and didn't see much value in Ensemble moving forward. Microsoft recently opened a XBLA studio and are currently hiring like mad for an internal Halo team. Also, there has been rumors of a studio being opened in Canada and another in Korea.

http://www.developmag.com/news/29794/Microsoft-to-invest-147m-in-South-Korea-with-eyes-on-game-studio

Unique' games could be developed locally and released globally for 360 says Bill Gates

Bill Gates announced last week that Microsoft - which he founded and is chairman of - will invest some $147m on growing its business in South Korea.

And some of the money will be spent on building a games development studio there, he added.

[KENYON06]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Wow, weren't there some crappy developers they could have axed instead? That sucks.

[Flawless]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Rob Fermier (former co-founder of Irrational Games/2K Boston, now programmer at Ensemble)

I can't really comment on any of the details beyond what's been publically confirmed. It has definitely been quite a day.

I do want to correct a few statements in this thread though:

1. Shane Kim doesn't run MGS anymore, Phil Spencer does.

2. We have had very little turnover prior to today. Maybe losing an average of 1-2 people a year, for a studio of over 100 people. That wasn't an accident -- making our studio a highly desirable place to work at was one of our top priorities.

Thanks for all the kind words about Ensemble. It was one of the best places in the industry IMO and I greatly enjoyed my time there (which isn't over quite yet, as we haven't finished off Halo Wars).

...

Wow, weren't there some crappy developers they could have axed instead? That sucks.

Flight Simulator team is still going strong.

[Flawless]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO

Following the recent announcement that Microsoft-owned Age Of Empires creator Ensemble Studios would close after the completion of Halo Wars, Gamasutra has discovered that a now-canceled Halo MMO was in development at the studio, unearthing prototype UI and level screenshots of the Ensemble-developed project.

Looking at the protoype images, it's easy to see why it was canceled.

[Cyros]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

A psion? Really?

[Cebby]

Re: Rumor: Ensemble shutting down

These type of things generally happen for a reason. While AoE is the bombdiggity, their price tag was probably a bit steep for pumping out 1 game every 4-5 years.