ensemble-studios 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)

Microsoft may have unceremoniously shut down Ensemble Studios earlier this year but the Age of Empires RTS series that Ensemble first created is still getting some attention from Microsoft. Today the company announced a new collection of Age of Empires III and its two expansion packs that will be released to stores on September 15.

The Complete Collection won't have any new content but if you haven't picked up the original game or its Warchiefs or Asian Dynasties expansion pack this would be a perfect way to catch up on one of the best PC RTS game series ever made Microsoft has said it has some kind of future plans for the Age series but so far there's been no word on what form that might take.

Microsoft's shut down earlier this year of Ensemble Studios caused a number of ex-Ensemble team members to form their own new companies. Perhaps the highest profile of them is Robot Entertainment which is now the caretaker of the Age of Empires online community. That means Robot Entertainment is releasing new patches for the Age of Empires series of RTS games.

Today, Trinigy announced that Robot Entertainment has licensed their Vision game graphics engine "to develop a multi-platform game". Other than it will be an original title no other info on the game was revealed. In their press release, Robot Entertainment's lead programmer Vijay Thakkar stated they choose the Vision engine because it "consistently stood out in terms of performance and how quickly our developers could see their ideas running in game." The big question is will Robot Entertainment be able to succeed as much as Ensemble did during its memorable run?

The PC game download-subscription service GameTap continues to add new games from Microsoft's extensive library of titles. This week the service adds Age of Mythology to its premium subscription service. The RTS game was first released in 2002 from the now shut down Ensemble Studios. It was a fantasy-themed departure from the developer's Age of Empires series and was also Ensemble's first 3D RTS game.

If you like free games (and who doesn't) GameTap has also temporarily added the original Fallout RPG from Interplay to its free games line-up. You can play the title for the cost of $0 for the next week. Oh, and you can check out some very funny GameTap TV ads from the Mega64 guys after the jump:

Today's announcement of id Software's acquisition by ZeniMax Media (owner of Bethesda Softworks) took most people by surprise. Yet it's not the only time that a big independent game developer has been bought out by a publisher. Sometime the new relationship works out for both companies and sometimes it doesn't.

Big Download decided to look back at just some of the major acquisitions between PC game developers and publishers and see how they fared. Which ones bore fruit? Which ones failed to live to their potential? And which one resulted in the developer shutting down operations even after a successful run of major PC game hits?

Click on the image above to continue reading about the big PC game developer acquisitions.

For a while Microsoft was one of the biggest publishers of PC games (both internally made and via third party publishers) but ever since their launch into the Xbox console business the company has released fewer PC games. In addition they have been shutting down internal PC game developers such as FASA Interactive, Ensemble Studios and ACES Studios. Currently Microsoft does not have any PC games on its publishing slate.

In a new GDC 2009 chat with Gamasutra, Games For Windows exec Dave Luehmann states that they have not abandoned developing and publishing PC games, saying, "We've got several titles in development right now, both internally developed and with external partners. We're here at GDC negotiating another deals, and we're here at GDC looking for other content partners. I'd say our position in Windows over the last six months has gone from a steady state, to a dip from a point of view of the press, but realistically we're putting more money into Windows games than we have in quite a while." Hopefully we will see if those statements are indeed true.

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.

Last week the newly formed Robot Entertainment launched their teaser web site, announcing their presence to the world. The Texas-based developer was founded by Ensemble Studios co-founder Tony Goodman and has quite a few of former Ensemble team after being basically kicked to the curb by Microsoft's shutdown of the studio.

Today the company revealed a little more about itself via a press release, stating that they currently have 45 team members, all former Ensemble employees. They have taken up the mantle to support the online community for the Age of Empires series of PC RTS games and will is also creating its own original game project.

In addition, Goodman had some interesting things to say in his press release, saying ""The video game industry is in a state of upheaval; not just games, but the entire landscape. Everything is changing: where we buy games, how we buy games, how much we pay, how long we play, who we play them with. As a fast-moving independent team of game developers, industry leaders and market experts, Robot Entertainment is ideally positioned to play a transformative role in the industry's future."