Microsoft confirms Ensemble closure, new studio opening

by Ross Miller { Sep 9th 2008 at 9:27PM }

After only briefly being classified as rumor, Microsoft has confirmed that Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios is indeed closing. Said the company in a statement (via Gamespot), "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."

According to Microsoft, Ensemble's "leadership team" is founding a new development studio that has already agreed to support Halo Wars after its launch in addition to other Microsoft Games Studios titles.

Tags: age-of-empires, breakingnews, ensemble, halo-wars, microsoft, microsoft-games-studio

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Night Elve @ Sep 9th 2008 9:33PM

Nooooooooooooooooo! Age of Empires !!! :( ...

Ihavepants @ Sep 9th 2008 10:13PM

Age of Empires is dead to me after the the 3rd installment.

Besides the rights to the name are owned by Microsoft so it's not like they won't make a 4th one.

Spartacus @ Sep 9th 2008 11:28PM

Ihavepants,

I don't not have pants too!

Thranx @ Sep 9th 2008 11:56PM

AOE3 blew.

GreyFox @ Sep 10th 2008 12:28AM

Wait. What was wrong with AOE3? It was just more AOE with new additions.

Mr Khan @ Sep 9th 2008 9:33PM

As others have pointed out, their closure and/or sale of first party studios is in marked contrast to their declaration that first party games are the most important factor now in differentiating the 360 from the PS3

Clinton RRoD sept.3 @ Sep 9th 2008 9:39PM

well seems like alot of this type of stuff is happing at Microsoft these days

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 9th 2008 10:50PM

Yeah. MS' in-house studios have been doing pretty badly lately. It's not necessarily the worst thing that they are cleaning house.

ifalldownstairs @ Sep 9th 2008 9:40PM

So are they leaving Microsoft's sphere of influence? If so, what the hell is MS doing to drive away all its major studios? All they have left is Lionhead, Turn 10 and Rare, none of whom seem capable of delivering a massive hit (although fable 2 will be awesome).

eugene @ Sep 9th 2008 9:44PM

potential profits by going multiplatform greater than MS payoff.

Mr Khan @ Sep 9th 2008 9:50PM

Never underestimate Rare

But they can't do much with Turn10, it's a dedicated Forza maker. Forza's good, but nothing game-changing.

LaughingTarget @ Sep 9th 2008 10:04PM

Rare is just a name these days. All the people that made Rare great in the past are long gone. They need to restablish themselves and can't expect name recognition to work.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 9th 2008 10:10PM

If Rare were anywhere near the same company that made them great in the earlier years I wouldn't count them out. As Laughing Target said - Rare is nothing more than a name. Honestly, Rare hasn't delivered a top tier game this generation.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 10th 2008 1:54AM

What's MS doing to drive them away? My guess is telling them to leave.

Which of the companies other than Bungie was worth keeping? Every company seemed to start making crap. And it isn't like this is new, their original Xbox purchases were hit and miss too, remember Oddworld Inhabitants?

RARE was good, but everyone good has left now. Their last good thing (possibly forever) was Viva Pinata. I have Viva 2, it's a clear milking of the Viva franchise, it sadly breaks almost no new ground, it doesn't even improve much (despite what you might have read in the reviews).

Turn 10 is okay, I really felt let down by Forza 2 (they stripped out the straight line races, cut the tracks in half and instead concentrated on the auctions). Still, their falling out over PGR (PGR4 was half-assed nonsense, PGR3 was pretty but wasn't as good as PGR2 in play), I think they're better off with Turn 10 and not Bizarre than they would have been with Bizarre and not Turn 10.

Snowblind @ Sep 10th 2008 4:58AM

I have to disagree. Viva Pinata 2 may be little more than an expansion, but still, both Viva Pinata and Kameo are still easily on par with anything Rare has ever made in the past.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 10th 2008 3:41PM

Neither Viva nor Kameo are particularly recent. And Kameo is crap. It's pure crap, with awful smashed together game elements. It's nothing compared to Banjo-Kazooie.

DemonGSides @ Sep 9th 2008 9:40PM

Bullet dodged there, it says that they'll support their old series' as well as new microsoft IP's. They're basically getting rid of a few members and giving it a new name/location.

VENOM @ Sep 9th 2008 9:45PM

Send me out...with a bang.

AwesomeTown @ Sep 9th 2008 9:45PM

Can someone explain to me the logic of closing a studio, then opening a new one with the same "leadership"? I'm serious, I just don't get business sometimes. Is it just because the Ensemble name is fading and the want to bring up a new name or what?

Desi_D @ Sep 9th 2008 9:54PM

They get out of MS' paws and become their own entity.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 9th 2008 10:13PM

multiplatform titles ... out of Microsoft's influence. More Money.

Noshino @ Sep 9th 2008 10:31PM

easy, it costs Microsoft less to fund a 3rd party title than to keep 1st party studio afloat.

Thranx @ Sep 9th 2008 11:57PM

Guilt free re-hiring?

Mighty Healthy @ Sep 10th 2008 12:03AM

Noshino: we have a winner!

Requiem For A Dream reference aside, I think you hit the nail on the head here.

AwesomeTown @ Sep 10th 2008 8:06AM

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, guys.

Desi_D @ Sep 9th 2008 9:52PM

My cousin whose wife works with a guy who whose uncle lives by MS campus and parties with MS people told her that MS is quitting console business after this gen. Hence MS getting rid of all their devs.

ifalldownstairs @ Sep 9th 2008 10:05PM

Oh wow man, then it must be true.

Lone Starr @ Sep 9th 2008 10:11PM

I heard the same thing.

Drew @ Sep 9th 2008 10:16PM

I know a guy who knows a guy who has an alienated step-brother who does weather forcasts for Hell, and get this: it is not going to freeze over for a looong time.

Drew @ Sep 9th 2008 10:38PM

Upon further study, it makes sense on the surface. No portable? Not necessary, really. Sony has shown the risk of that. Accepting defeat from N? This is the most solid, course they may be acting honest, but that should hurt stocks. As for dropping first parties, honestly, how much has been spent to secure exclusive any thing? It makes sense to save a bit, and that means letting go. They are simply maximising profit that will not go to others. Add to that that Microsoft GS only publishes, which is more pricy than deving under a publisher.

LaughingTarget @ Sep 9th 2008 10:10PM

A third party with an exclusivity agreement is cheaper than first party. The studio only gets paid if they perform, first party just eats resources.

Desi_D @ Sep 9th 2008 11:00PM

It might be cheaper in the short run because MS is in a position right now where they have several IPs they own (mainly Halo and GoW) and they can milk them for a while. But in the long run I'm not sure if developers are exactly going to be rushing over to them to hand them their original IPs. And even if up and coming studio is willing to sign over their heart and soul, you have to decide whether you want to fund bunch of unproven developers with great ideas but no track record. And that brings me to another point and makes me wonder why MS is dumping proven studios like Bungie and Ensemble that brought lot of success to them but keeping Rare and Lionhead. Creative differences perhaps...who knows.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 10th 2008 2:10AM

In the case of these deals, Sony (or in this case MS) is the publisher too and is putting in significant dough to the project. So they aren't completely insulated from failures (see Lair).

I do agree MS hasn't handled this situation well, but I think MS realizes it too and has likely already started correcting the problem. But given how long dev cycles are now, we won't see the results for a bit.

Besides, they've already seen the success you can get with 2nd and 3rd party development with Gears of War and Mass Effect and took it to heart.

Machiavellian @ Sep 9th 2008 10:31PM

This looks pretty much like the same deal Bungie but the difference is that Bungie paid MS to keep their name while ES said bump it, we keep our money and open another studio under another name. Pretty much means that ES leadership are free of MS yoke and like others have said drive their own ship.

I wouldn't be surprise if MS funds this new studio in a way so they can keep their fingers in ES pockets the same way they do with Bungie.

Jeremiah Moon @ Sep 9th 2008 10:56PM

This is sad news to me - I've got a lot of good memories playing Age of Empires II.

Ah well, all things must come to an end I suppose.

vanquish @ Sep 9th 2008 11:41PM

And MS loses another studio,especially after Bizarre, Bungie, Bioware, Digital Anvil and FASA all either closed down,became independent or got bought.The future is not looking bright for 1st part titles on the 360.
MS must realise that Rare can't do everything.
They should follow Sony's lead and keep a raft of AAA developers in house.

Why would anyone close one of the foremost RTS developers ever is beyond me...

capt_carl @ Sep 9th 2008 11:16PM

May I be the first to say "Fuck you Microsoft!" ?

*glares angrily at his 360*

vanquish @ Sep 9th 2008 11:24PM

Snowblind @ Sep 10th 2008 4:56AM

Microsoft never owned Bioware, and Bungie simply want to be independent, they still essentially work for Microsoft though. They certainly should have bought Bioware when they had the chance though, even though Mass Effect will stay exclusive nothing else they make will be, and havin KotOR III exclusively on the 360 would have been a huge boost for them.

Bizarre was no huge loss though, with the exception of PGR and Geometry Wars, they've made nothing but garbage. Simply giving the PGR liscence to another team was far easier than keeping them around, I think.

vanquish @ Sep 9th 2008 11:35PM

MS doesn't realise how important it is to have first party devs. Just look at the PS3 and Killzone 2, the graphics flagship for the platform. What is the 360's graphical flaship, GOW2?. But Epic is a multiplatform dev, so the same UE3.5 used to power GOW2 will be on the PS3 in UT4 or something, which reduces the exclusiveness of Gears as the PS3 has a game that looks as good.

And none of MS exclusives are really pushing the console either, unlike the PS3 with killzone 2, heavy rain, resistance 2 etc. Bungie was out of form technically with Halo 3, and GOW/COD4 are the best looking games on the system, and they are multplatform. Only Alan Wake if it ever is released seems like a technically outstanding 360 exclusive.

ComradeTrotskii @ Sep 9th 2008 11:45PM

I don't think it's that Microsoft doesn't understand how important it is to have first party developers, rather I just think it the case that they are preparing a new model for their next generation. (I'm not saying I understand why or agree with what they are doing but this behaviour has become a trend and something that, for whatever reason, is clearly part of their strategy).

Bj Sisco @ Sep 9th 2008 11:48PM

Dude... your crazy.

umm....hello??? @ Sep 9th 2008 11:43PM

as long as I get my Halo Wars and it's a complete game (not a trilogy or something that needs a sequel) I'll be happy...

nick @ Sep 9th 2008 11:55PM

This is not good news. The last thing you want to hear before the release of ANY game is that the studio is no longer around OR is being acquired leaving the title or future titles in question.

It's the surest way to reduce sales of the upcoming game.

kabobrocks @ Sep 10th 2008 1:10AM

oh noes, Agoe of Empires. The 3rd one may not have been that great, but I was still kind of crossing fingers for an Age of Mythology 2 :)

psaumur @ Sep 10th 2008 3:24AM

"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."

No. Only managements inability to make money on one of the largest and highly profitable IPs in the industry.

Nice!