Gamerscore Blog

Go to hell you Microsoft pigs!

Glad age of empires will still have a future, thanks for the reassurance...

oh and please use this font again, looks nice on the screen.

Suprising to hear... hope MS has somthing good in store for the Ensemble people and their franchises.

I haven't even played an Ensemble game; but it's really sad to see them go. I'd like to say I'll pay tribute by picking up Halo Wars; but that just doesn't seem enough.

All this thread does is create more questions.  AOE has a future without Ensemble? What has happened to MGS's support for Windows gaming?  Are there any 1st party PC exclusives in the pipeline?

I'm always saddened when I hear about 1st party studio's closing (seems to have happened a lot in the past few years).  I love the AOE series and am looking forward to Halo Wars.

"I want to reassure you that Microsoft will still own the Age of Empires intellectual property.  As a company, we’re very excited about the future potential for Age of Empires, and as a PC gamer I’m looking forward to what that future holds."

What baloney!  MS doesn't believe in the future of RTS's, evidenced in Ensemble's closing.  And ohhh noooo, I was so worried MS was going to lose the brand!  I doubt people will care much for the name "Age of Empires" if there's no talent behind it.

Honestly I'd be happier if the fired Ensemble employees went on to make their own company, and kept creating great AoE games.  Who cares what MS (publisher) does. It's all about the creators and talent behind the games.

Sometimes owning the IP/franchise doesn't necessarily mean it's in good hands. Just as you can't take necessarily the look & feel or genie game engine and make something as good as your starting point (see: Galactic Battlegrounds), the same can hold true for taking the IP in a new or different direction.

AoE games have a certain look and feel, a well researched approach with historical flourishes, great controls and fun gameplay and replayability. It would be a shame to see that disappear. Long time players will be hoping for the best (but bracing for the worst), I suspect relatively newer players (I recall Nelson recently started playing AoE) should do the same.

On the bright side, the new studio, with however many ex-ensemble people they can take with them, should be free to develop new IP of their own and go in a new direction, stretching their legs a bit further than perhaps Age of Mythology allowed them. Graeme Devine got to expand on the Halo Universe, and to expand/tweak history with the Age series - perhaps there's something brand new out there for the ex-id guy to get working on.

MS only bought Ensemble back in 2000 or 2001 I think. It's a shame MS bought up so many companies back in "the day" only to shed them later. Only one was lucky enough so far to really buy their own way back out.

What about the talented people who were Ensemble?  

One word Kevin: Heartless.

I removed the personal attack on Kevin, trust me guys, I get the frustration, and the anger, but please don't direct it at the dude who's trying to open the lines of communication as best he can.

Very short sighted move by MS.  At a time that Sony and Nintendo are using first party studios to differentiate their game lineup, MS is shutting down or selling off captive studios as fast as possible (FASA, Bungie, Ensemble).

Owning the IP and outsourcing it to the cheapest developer is not a realiable strategy.  There is a culture and institutional knowledge developers have with the IP's they've created.

MS is trying to save a little now and only costing itself more in the long run.  Now if you guys are replacing these studios with plans to buy developers like Epic, etc. that would be a different story, but at this stage it just looks like the accountants are calling all the shots.

I wouldn't be surprised to have the next news be that MS is outsourcing AoE to some Indian or Chinese software firm...

Nothing against Kevin, as I'm sure a director has lots to do, but I kind of expected the comment to come from team members who have posted more than twice since March/07 - the ones who have established communication lines already (though no longer audio ones *pbbbbt*)...

So currently the list of Microsoft published game IPs that no longer have their development studio are :
Age of Empires
Project Gotham Racing
Shadowrun
Crimson Skies
Mechwarrior
Ninja Gaiden (sort of)
Halo Wars
Halo (sort of)

So is Halo Wars going to have any DLC content or is that it once the game goes gold?

El Cid. Microsoft did not sell Bungie or close their doors. Bungie is still there and are working on an awesome new game or two. The two companies are still good friends but the Bungie LLC folks can no longer shop at the Microsoft employee store. They were a wholly owned subsidiary that is now a 3rd party developer.

Oh yeah I forgot to add
Blinx
&
Blue Dragon
Artoon is still around

I wanted to reassure you all that even though all those fine people at Ensemble Studios are going to lose their jobs, we get to keep the Age of Empires license! So you can stop worrying about Ensemble, they don't really matter!

Yeah, I know, I'm sure people were asking about it, and you wanted to tell them, but somehow, it doesn't seem like the right thing to say at this point.

It's sad to see such a driving force in the gaming industry close down like this. Keeping the license is good, I doubt many thought the series was in trouble.


And Jake, all ip's that FASA had before their "closure" was licenesed to FASA'a original founder who started a company called "Smith & Tinker". You also forget Age of Mythology and almost everything that was done by a studio Microsoft owned called "Digital Anvil", which was closed in a similar manner.

@Jake - the fact that MS couldn't retain their premier development house is part of the problem.  While MS gets first dibs at their titles for an unspecified period of time it is easy to see Bungies future IP's showing up on competing systems.

Also, the relationship between MS and Bungie is anything but amicable.  Maybe you've missed their past few podcasts or the statement from Bungie's CEO following the E3 announcement debacle?

Your list of games that MS now owns the IP for, but doesn't have developers for, is right on the mark.  

I'm afraid that the bean counters at MS now completely call the shots and have decided that it's best to own an IP and farm it out to the cheapest bidder rather than retain development houses with all of their associated overhead.  While that might make sense on a quarterly spreadsheet it completely ignores the artistic aspect of game design and the culture (and results) associated with a sweatshop versus developers who feel valued and have some sense of job security.

@El Cid I sat down and talked with Marty of Bungie back in May and their evolving relationship with Microsoft was the main topic of conversation.
http://tinyurl.com/3zxcs4

Microsoft does not have the right of first refusal on future Bungie Lcc games. Their relationship with Microsoft is pretty good and they are still working together. The MS Microsoft split was not like a typical corporate break up and no-one lost their jobs but it is a pretty unique situation. There are people still working on “Halo” projects in multiple places.  Frankie of Bungie now works at Microsoft Games Studio and Microsoft Games Studio is hiring lots of people. Marty told me that Shane Kim of Microsoft Games studio was a good friend.

And as for the “Bean counters” Microsoft is a for profit corporation and they need to make money... period. But yes it is a tough balance between making good games and putting the money into a good investment.  I love Shenmue but had such high costs and sold so poorly that it almost bankrupted Sega. This might be a part of a shift from external development of games from 2nd party developers to internal development of games by the blue badges at Redmond. (or is the Millennium building in Kirkland or Bellvue?)