Ensemble founder speaks about studio closure

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 23rd 2008 at 12:30PM }

Remember that amazing relationship you once had where you didn't even see the breakup coming? Well, that's sort of what Ensemble Studios founder Bruce Shelley sounds like when talking about Microsoft's closure of his studio. Shelley explains he "remains very disappointed" and that everyone at the studio still has a job until Halo Wars is finished later this year.

Shelley does give some detail on why the ax got dropped on the studio, explaining that Microsoft wanted to shift the budget to other development houses which were "expected to deliver" more strategic and profitable games. Won't this all end up being just a bundle of awkward if Halo Wars magically becomes a smash hit?

[Via Big Download]

Tags: bruce-shelly, closure, ensemble, ensemble-studios, microsoft, shelly

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Solaranox @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:51PM

WTF is MS thinking????

&rew @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:54PM

I really wish he went insane and called Microsoft a bunch of assholes or something entertaining like that, because I will miss their strategy games, even if I only played two.

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:57PM

Ensemble is a good developer, and Halo Wars is a surefire hit.

So, I don't really get it.

Pudge @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:01PM

So, because nobody bought Grabbed by the Goulies and Viva Pinata, now Ensemble gets closed down and we don't get a Halo MMO?

Fuck you Rare

BigD145 @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:07PM

I see parallels to Clover Studio.

Noshino @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:39PM

uh, actually, far from it.

iirc, Capcom, despite the low sales, was still supporting them, but they closed Clover due to the fact that the "heads" had already left.

Ensemble in the other hand, these guys have a sales record of over 20 mil copies, that said, their main forte was the RTS genre.

The only reason that seems SOMEWHAT logical about this is that it was profitable for Microsoft to keep them afloat as is, and instead are trying to form more internal studios.

IMHO this strategy will come back and bite them in the ass, they should do as Nintendo and Sony and keep the whole studio standing, I mean, it really hurts the employees.

WhoMe @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:07PM

So basically they themselves think that Halo Wars won't be the bee's knees...

That bodes well for this game.

Jesse @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:11PM

This is a tragedy. Ensemble had the hands-down best-ever take on player-created maps: the random map scripts from Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology. I really hope the folks of Ensemble find a way to keep making games.

343 Guilty Fart @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:44PM

I hope this means that the chances of Halo Wars DLC isn't gone, but it doesn't look well.

Anticrawl @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:00PM

The reason Microsoft does this is because it is their first steps as dictator of the world when they begin taking it over. First act is to burn books and kill off anyone with talent or intelligence. We have already seen this with FASA, the development team that put Xbox Live on the map, made all what we enjoy possible and created the superb Shadowrun FPS (Not to mention members of the team were the original creators of Shadowrun from it's early stages in the 80s) and now they moved on to Ensemble Studios.

Geoff900 @ Sep 23rd 2008 5:16PM

I find silly that people think that there isn't going to be any Age Of Empire. Er hello people, MGS still own the rights, and all they done is got rid of the name 'Ensemble'.

How long have Ensemble and MS been together? 10 Years+? Its a good run will it lasted, MS cannot keep on going wasting money anymore, Shadowrun was a flop, it wasn't even that good.

Age Of Empires 3 wasn't that good, but don't forget one thing, MS still own the I.P's to all these games, and they have to shuffle the business because of these happenings.

Silicon Siren @ Sep 23rd 2008 5:23PM

@Geoff900

Shadowrun was only a "flop" because it wasn't propperly promoted by Microsoft. No one knew of the game because all the advertisment funding was held for Halo 3, which was more of a disapointment. Clearly you have never played the game and base your opinions solely around reviews and the falsly created "stigma" around the game. The game was something fresh and new rhe FPS genre needed and the few people initially interested, and those in the media that controlled the publics opinion of the game were merely bitter that it didn't follow the Shadowrun history exactly and wasn't an RPG. If Gertsman's review wasn't altered for Shadowrun after his embarassing firing then you could see for yourself what I mean. You're just another mindless drone comforming to the masses misguided opinions.

TrojanGuy @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:01PM

That studio closure makes no sense to me. Ensemble is/was a good dev.

Dirty @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:47PM

I really hope this isn't an indication of Microsoft going more casual.

Silicon Siren @ Sep 23rd 2008 4:27PM

Still terrible news, Age of Empires was one of my favorite RTS series.

Geoff900 @ Sep 24th 2008 10:13AM

@ Silicon Siren

Infact, if you look at my gamer tag Geoff900, you will find that I have infact played the game, it wasn't that good, only a few maps controls where slow.

What more can I say about the game? Oh yeh it was crap, and lots of people thought the same.