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Microsoft disbands Ensemble Studios

Age of Empire creators go bye bye

By Phazon88 on September 10, 2008 6:49:46 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

As of today, all "non-essential" employees at Ensemble Studios were laid off. Those still remaining are finishing work on the Halo Wars RTS for the 360.

Ensemble Studios is probably best known for the Age of *insert name here* line of RTS games, indeed its the only range of titles the company has made during its lifetime. Its funny to see when the company decides (or forced) to do something remotely different, they end up being axed by their parent company.

I supposed the Microsoft execs weren't too impressed when they saw Master Chief and .co harvesting wood, foraging bushes for food and mining for gold and stone harhar.

 

A new studio is being formed, with some Ensemble employees moving to it. Bets are on that it'll probably be a studio for the 360 only. Can't help but think Microsoft doesn't gives a stuff about PC gaming anymore.

+4 Karma | 12 Replies
Reply #1
Aractain
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September 10, 2008 7:02:42 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

It has a highly succsesful money box that PC user just laugh at, why would they care about us? We didn't even buy vista much.

Reply #2
UEF Soldier
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September 10, 2008 7:09:22 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Its sooo sad to see this happen. AoE 2 was one of my all time favorite games.

Reply #3
Poita_
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September 10, 2008 9:36:22 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

I saw this.

I have no idea why they would do that. They say it's financial reasons, yet Age of Empires always tops PC charts. After Blizzard RTSs, I think AoE games are the next best sellers (Nope, AoE1 even sold more than WC3 according to wiki).

God knows what's going on with Microsoft.

Reply #5
Gnats3
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September 10, 2008 3:45:06 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

 

Reply #6
Spartan
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September 10, 2008 4:11:29 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

As if this is a shock to anyone. Frankly I'm amazed it did not happen sooner to be honest.

Reply #7
innociv
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September 11, 2008 2:47:33 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

A studio that sold an average of 1.5 million games a year (17million since 1995) wasn't enough for them I guess. :/

 

Jesus christ publisher CEO's are mostly idiots.

Reply #8
Phazon88
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September 11, 2008 3:42:46 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Microsoft obviously wanted to try and meld their talent for the good of the 360, since they simply do not care about PC gaming anymore.

Reply #9
nightwraith40k
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September 12, 2008 11:42:53 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums
Reply #10
Savyg
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September 15, 2008 3:05:32 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

Considering MS doesn't really seem like it has a publishing arm for PC games anymore, I'm not terrible surprised.

 

However, saying they don't care about PC gaming is naive.  If it wasn't for PC gaming, people would have a lot fewer reasons to stick with Windows these days.

Reply #11
Iceciro
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September 25, 2008 12:01:41 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

If it wasn't for gaming I'd stick with Linux - making gaming work there is just more of a hastle than I'd like.

But I saw this conflict of intrest coming ever since the Xbawks launched - why make games for the PC, when they can make games for thier own console?

Reply #12
Spartan
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September 26, 2008 7:55:01 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

The problem with that thinking is that Windows is their primary ecosystem.

Reply #13
Iceciro
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September 26, 2008 2:03:17 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Windows is their primary - but not for gaming.  They sell more stuff if Windows is for businesses and the Xbox is for gaming - people who do both will need both.

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