bonfire-studios posts

A development team that was formed by a number of ex-Ensemble Studios team members is now a part of the ever growing Zynga family of dev studios. Dallas-based Bonfire Studios has been acquired by social networking games publisher Zynga and will be renamed Zynga Dallas. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bonfire Studios was launched due to Microsoft's shut down of Ensemble in 2009. Members of Bonfire previously worked on the Age of Empires RTS series. Zynga plans to publish all new games from its Dallas studio and it's likely they will be Facebook-linked titles. The Age of Empires franchise is currently in the hands of another Ensemble splinter group Robot Entertainment which is currently developing Age of Empires Online.

The fallout from the shutdown of RTS game developer Ensemble Studios continues to be felt. Already two new game dev teams, Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios, have emerged from the ashes. Now another ex-Ensemble employee has launched his own team called Windstorm Studios.

Formed by former Ensemble team member Dusty Monk, this new venture seems to be on a somewhat smaller scale than the other two Ensemble business spinoffs. However, the Windstorm web site states that their first project "will be an online game unlike anything you've ever seen." We have certainly heard that claim before many times but if this new venture makes good on it we will be happy indeed.

[Via Joystiq]

We've been reporting a lot of the shut down of Ensemble Studios because, well, we still can't believe that one of the most successful PC game developers in history has been closed by its parent company Microsoft. Their final game was the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo Wars and the game's final credit roll (recorded by our sister site Joystiq) has the various Ensemble team members saying their final goodbyes.

There's lots of thanks to family and friends in this very atypical final game credit sequence but many of Ensemble's members have already found employment at two new developers: Robot Entertainment (who will actually be supporting and adding onto Halo Wars) and Bonfire Studios. The big question: Will either of these studios take on a new Age of Empires game? Stay tuned.

Ensemble Studios co-founder Bruce Shelley said in his final blog entry for the now defunct game developer that at least two new game developers will be formed from the ashes of Microsoft's shut down of the Age of Empires developer. Last week one of them, Robot Entertainment, revealed itself. Today another team announced its presense with the launch of the Bonfire Studios site.

Composed mainly of team members who worked on the just completed Halo Wars Xbox 360 game, Bonflire Studios is currently working on their first project which they state will have a "great in-depth story, combat and game play" while also being " fast, fun and addictive." Ah, we wish all games had those qualities.