bruce-shelley posts

One year ago this week, Dallas-based Ensemble Studios was forced to close its doors by its owner Microsoft despite becoming one of the most successful PC game developers in history with the multi-million selling Age of Empires series of RTS games. Many of the former Ensemble employees have moved on to other game development gigs and some have formed new studios like Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios. However, one of the original co-founders of Ensemble, Bruce Shelley, has been fairly silent about what he has been doing since the studio closed down.

However the newest trailer for Ubisoft's upcoming The Settlers 7 has revealed that Shelley has been hired as a game design consultant to the upcoming and latest game in the long running strategy-city building series from developer Blue Byte Software. The Settlers series has always been popular overseas but has never really been a huge success in the US. It's likely that Shelley's consulting work is an effort to broaden the game's design to it will appeal to a US audience. The game itself is in beta testing and is scheduled for a late March release.

Download HD Settlers 7 'Economy' Gameplay Video (366 MB)

Tomorrow one of the most respected and well know PC game developers will shut their doors for the final time. Dallas-based Ensemble Studios, the creators of the multi-million selling Age of Empires RTS series, will be shut down by its owner Microsoft. Last week the developer completed its work on the Xbox 360 exclusive game Halo Wars.

Today Ensemble's co-founder Bruce Shelley posted up what will most likely be his final blog entry on the site (in fact sources at Ensemble have told Big Download that Microsoft plans to shut down the Ensemblestudios.com web site on Friday night). Shelley states, "It is hard to believe that the day has finally come when Ensemble Studios closes its doors and we move on to whatever is next." Throughout its history there hasn't been much turnover at the studio with Shelley saying, "60% of the people who worked on Age of Empires I were with the studio to the end."

While Ensemble is closing down, Shelley states, "There are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well." One of the unnamed studios will be providing support for both Halo Wars after its release and the ESO online service for their Age of Empires/Mythology titles. The Agecommunity.com web site will also stay online. Shelley states, "We had a burst of games being played right around Christmas, suggesting a lot of Age of Empires III and The Asian Dynasties were received as gifts. The number of players online has jumped up to about 4000 now at peak times and the total number of ESO accounts is now over 800,000."

Shelley still has not revealed his future plans but his final blog statements express his thanks to everyone who has played an Ensemble-created game. He states, "On behalf of everyone at ES, past and present, thanks for your support over the years. Your feedback on our games made the next version better. Buying legitimate copies made it possible for us to keep making them. Thanks also to those who wrote us to express regrets about the end of our studio and even the end of this blog."

Microsoft may have shut down the development studio that he co-founded but his peers have decided to give him a major honor. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences have announced that Bruce Shelley, the founder of Ensemble Studios, will be the latest person inducted in the organization's Hall of Fame.

Shelley will be the 12th person named to the AIAS Hall of Fame by its members with the official ceremony to be held at the organization's annual DICE Summit in Las Vegas on Feb. 19. Shelley first gained fame by working with fellow Hall of Fame inductee Sid Meier on the classic Civilization and other titles at Microprose. Shelley then went out on his own and co-formed Dallas-based Ensemble in 1995. Their Age of Empires series of RTS games were both critical and sales hits. Recently Ensemble's owners Microsoft announced they would be shutting down Ensemble after the team completes their work on the Xbox 360 title Halo Wars. It's currently unknown what Shelley has planned next in the business.

A couple of weeks ago the games industry was shocked when Microsoft confirmed the upcoming closure of its Dallas based Ensemble Studios. Today the official Ensemble web site has posted up a blog post from its founder Bruce Shelley who gives his first public comments about the closing of the Age of Empires developer.

Shelley admits that the Ensemble team "remains very disappointed" that Microsoft is closing the studio, saying, "I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don't fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we're out."