Ensemble: "Microsoft made a mistake"

slak - 416 days 12 hours ago

I liked Ensemble .....MS fu*k up again and thats to bad

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ultimolu - 416 days 12 hours ago

Yeah, Ensemble sounds like a very impressive studio to me.

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ChrisGTR1 - 416 days 12 hours ago

ensemble was/is an amazing studio but i think ultimately they closed it down do to pc piracy and sales slowing down in general. i loved all 3 age of empires though, and mythology.

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Charmers - 416 days 11 hours ago

I was wondering could I have some of what you are smoking ChrisGTR1 because piracy had absolutely nothing to do with ensemble's closure. It is a matter of record that MS is culling costs and developers to try and make as much profit as possible out the xbox 360 and to help pay for the price reduction they just did on their console. So if you want to blame a system then blame the xbox 360.

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StephanieBBB - 416 days 11 hours ago

Ditch/revamp anything Halo related in Halo wars and rename it "Total wars" or something, and then release it as a multiplatform RTS title for PS3, 360 and PSP.

That should stur things up.

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The Matrix - 416 days 11 hours ago

Ensemble was a great developer. I grew up playing Age of Mythology and Age of Empires. I hope they can become a separate company and continue to make great games despite a retard move by Microsoft.

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Bodhi - 416 days 10 hours ago

ultimolu... Was it necessary to say it? I've seen you say Sony has made mistakes too but it's not necessary to put have first post of the article to downplay MS.

Maybe it was maybe it wasn't, looked a bit fanboyish being the first comment.

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Viper7 - 416 days 10 hours ago

I am with ensemble with this one, thats one studio they should not have shut down.

For ages I have thinked that Age of empires series (and why not age of mythology) have been bright diamonds within the big pile of "microsoft"
Now they are suddenly ripping off the diamonds and giving this **** as thanks for the best game studio they have, I mean wth?

Even tough I am somewhat MS hater (for variety of reasons not really related to consoles) I did hope that they would let Ensemble to keep up the AOE franchise, which is basically still one of the best lan games ever made.
Not to mention one of the best realtime "realistic" strategy games.

When I heard they where working for halo wars I was slightly disapointed but still hoped them success.

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whoelse - 416 days 10 hours ago

They couldn't have cut the price without closing down these studios.

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gaffyh - 416 days 8 hours ago

What if these guys go Wii/PS3 exclusive because of this? That'd be very bad for MS, but I doubt it

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xenogamer - 416 days 6 hours ago

lets get a awesome established franchise, and make a stupid ass RTS out of it just because... yeah lets do that yea... idiots

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ultimolu - 416 days 6 hours ago

Bodhi, Sony does make mistakes. All companies do but what matters is what you do to correct those mistakes and making sure they never happen again.

Why drag Sony into this when it wasn't about Sony?

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ultimolu - 416 days 11 hours ago

You just know someone's gonna mention it. o_o

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The Lazy One - 416 days 11 hours ago

firefly :(

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Jdoki - 416 days 10 hours ago

You make a good point, similar to one I have been making for a while...

The 50million MS wasted on GTAIV DLC could have been used to finance a few existing developers or even start up a couple of new ones.

When Epic launched the original Gears they claimed it cost 10million to make. If that's true then MS could have had 5 new IP, or invested in some great titles.

Instead we get MS closing studios and a cutting 1st party developers loose.

GG MS...

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etownone - 416 days 11 hours ago

hahahaha.... yeah ok!

You do know the game Halo Wars made by Ensemble Studios is still coming, right KID? and even if they didn't close it down, ES probably wouldn't be able to push out another game for the 360 for like another 3-4 with their track record.

so you fail, but nice try KID!

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Lucreto - 416 days 11 hours ago

I never like Halo but an RTS I might like it. If its like AOE it will have the necessary back story for someone new to the series.

I will be getting the PC version if they don't release one they have lost a sale.

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Itrguy001 - 415 days 18 hours ago

I was gonna get Halo wars but i found out that MS and Ensemble didn't have a PC version so it will be a TRUE EXCLUSIVE that will only come out on the 360 and not a "EXCLUSIVE" that is on both the PC and 360

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likedamaster - 415 days 14 hours ago

That was Bungies decision, Microsoft just "let them have independance". On another note...Ensemble is still great. Remember when "key" members/developers of Rare went over to develop for PS3 and the garbage they put out? Haze anyone?

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The Lazy One - 416 days 10 hours ago

M$ doesn't need that many first party studios when they can just pay money or publish third party developers for exclusivity. They made a platform that's easy enough to develop for that they don't need as many interior studios to develop for their systems.

In the case of sony, they need those first and second party developers to actually do the research and make the new technology, because major multi-platform developers won't put major RnD into developing for a single platform.

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elorm9 - 416 days 10 hours ago

MS did make Xbox development similar to PC software development. Therefore, it shouldn't be too hard for them to adjust to that platform.

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supremacy - 416 days 10 hours ago

well first of all the 360 was design with a very similar architecture to the pc in mind, Hench valve even stated this several times themselves so for this studio who by the way has already been working on the 360 for 4 years on halo wars should be along time experience anyways.

the other thing is SOE Sony online entertainment is a pc focused company and even they are working on the ps3 which uses a very different architecture than those of standard pc's and you want to sit there and give me that lame excuse?

also ms had to drop the price of the 360 in order to keep their momentum going forward i mean they were losing that in 08 to both its competitors so a drastic move had to be made, so cutting all these studios just fitted the bill.

besides what i also don't get is why in the world would a company like Microsoft a very rich powerful yet super profitable company like this one, show signs of fatigue by selling their studios?

doesn't make much sense, but what i truly believe is that Microsoft doesn't really care about the gaming world at all, all they really want is what you have been stating all this time. money. all while slowly and profitably working on that other thing that is monopoly.most of 360's exclusives are pc but they all have to use windows live? see where im going with this? say one day they decided to wait for a cheesy company like ea to buy enough 3rd parties to consume them with peter moore on board as well? than the industry would just have to do what they plead and everyone, including you and i will bleed greens on everything, little insignificant content would cost you loads, stuff that should be free wont be free? eventually competition will die and with it innovation? and thus the purpose of gaming.

look ms just wants to squeeze the life out of everything that innovates and doesn't generally necessarily bring in dough, linux? they actually have tried to buy the rights several times, wikipedia? same scenario and it goes on and on yahoo? lol you can go and on. not to say Sony is a saint either, because they are not trust me on that but ms is just out there with these kinds of practices..and...

not to brag but...

this is m$ for you and this is how m$ works, i mean if you are ms and you make over 3 million some change annually on windows and even more money in office why cant you keep these small gaming studios afloat?

look Sony is smaller than Microsoft in the financial side of things and they seem to be serious about their gaming studios and properties, instead of having these studios working on a new shape of something old than simply dumping them, they rather invest their money and resources in these studios with the new on the new in mind.

there is a reason why a company like level 5 doesn't like Microsoft these days, sure ms can advertise and spam peoples views on things. but they cant buy respect from these companies. what they did to bungie at that e3 is going to hunt them eventually.

better idea for ms to do going forward is to buy the properties instead of the companies if this is how they plan on working.

im not even a fan of bungie but you know how much that would suck if Sony one day decided to consume them whole? and they like their new home? i would totally laugh at you for even defending the wrong man. seriously.

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comm13 - 416 days 11 hours ago

Yes, because it is soooo easy to make an RTS work on a console.

ES makes QUALITY titles, MS prefers cheap and efficiency development with low quality but high marketing generating high sales.

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Itrguy001 - 415 days 18 hours ago

ARE U FCKING KIDDING ME?????????
ENSEMBLE was RAKING in A LOT OF MONEY for MS with all the Age of Mythology and the expansions and then Ensemble came out with another RTS Age of Empire and those expansions and i bought all of the fcking expansions to AoE. I do not fckin see why MS needs to close Ensemble they are a fcking good studio

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elorm9 - 416 days 10 hours ago

From what I know, Sony is more friendly about these kinds of things. That's why they have 2nd party devs like Insomniac. Sony doesn't pressure them to make the game a certain way, they just give them the tools and watch them at work.

It's possible that such a thing could happen, but Sony may not purchase Ensemble. I think ES would have to come to Sony instead.

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Viper7 - 416 days 9 hours ago

There are teams with smaller ammount of ppl working than for bungee example. You cant make epic game in a year if you only got handfull of ppl.

Those of you trying to down Ensemple because of their PC background, seem not to realize that they have been making the console game for 4 years now. What can they do if its not as important game for microsoft as gears of Halo3.

as far as I know AOE games have sold quite well in the past, I dont know how well did AOE3 do, but it sure is a good game.

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supremacy - 416 days 10 hours ago

what studios have Sony closed? i mean Sony may have canceled a few projects yeah but the people and the studios are still standing and working full hours on other things, supporting the other studios as well.

8 days and getaway 3 got canned? guess what now those same studios are working on things like home and the eyepet. Sony didn't wait for them to finish a certain project and than just dish em, thats different my friend. Sony's thing is investing in these studios with the new on the new in mind, you dig?

but you are right on the other stuff, it is mostly about money no doubt about it my friend.

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PoSTedUP - 416 days 11 hours ago

i still cant believe their will be no AoE4, i was really looking froward to that game man. and EA shutting down eaBIG, no more SSXTrickey?!?!? wtf is this world coming to?!?! f*** MS and F*** EA (but i still have faith in ea) just very disappointed.... (-_-)

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Itrguy001 - 415 days 18 hours ago

yeah SSX was never good after Tricky.

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GWAVE - 416 days 11 hours ago

What's sad is that high sales seem to be more important to you than a high amount of quality titles. THAT is sad!

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heyheyhey - 416 days 11 hours ago

Sony have made more million sellers than Microsoft ever will... simply because MS's first party is WEAK!!! and no-one buys Rare games any more

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gamfreak - 415 days 14 hours ago

Sad thing is M$ always makes mistakes

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Wiimaniac - 415 days 13 hours ago

OMG so owned! lol

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