260°

Ensemble Studios Closes Its Doors

Today, Ensemble Studios co-founder Bruce Shelley wrote his final blog for the company, which is set to shut its doors now that work on Halo Wars is complete.

MGOelite5572d ago

this is uncool, i really liked playing the age of empires games and would have loved to see a new one, used to be great playing demo for age of empires 1 online during double ict.

microsoft has basically said finish our game now your jobless

PixlSheX5572d ago

damn i want to play a new AoE so bad.. *sniff*

shovelbum5572d ago

Man that sucks. I'm a big fan of the Age of Empires series and am pulling for Halo Wars more than ever so MS can realize then continue to deny the err of their ways.

GiantEnemyCrab5572d ago

"According to Shelley, “at least two new studios” will be formed by former employees, one of which will handle their online presence, and one to handle post-launch support for Halo Wars."

Sounds like we will be seeing at least 2 new studios.

PirateThom5572d ago

"one of which will handle their online presence, and one to handle post-launch support for Halo Wars."

Bare in mind, Microsoft have a studio set up exclusively for in-game advertising. If they were going to make games, a single studio is more effective than splitting the team.

Death5572d ago

There is no doubt having a first party studio is good, but there are benefits of having good relations with second and third party studios also. Long ago when Gameday was a great football game, Sony sacrificed the IP and studio in order to gain third party support from EA. It's business and it's politics all into one. Creators want independance and console manufacturers want less fiscal responsibility. It's a crazy messed up market. I hate seeing Ensemble close it's doors, but at the same time most great companies are founded from the ashes of great companies.

-Death

KRUSSIDULL5572d ago

Lets show microsoft how wrong they are by shutting Ensemble Studios down. Make Halo Wars sell a few million if you dont have a 360 but Halo Wars anyway.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 5572d ago
KingDizzi5572d ago

Simple terrible news, MS shutting down a great studio. Retards. :(

paul-p19885572d ago

They are kinda lucky the guys who made Halo had the money to buy themselves off, otherwise they woulda completly destroyed there games division (Halo is basically wat runs the 360).

Some very bad moves by M$, but its not that suprising, the only thing they are good at is buying stuff, but never knowing what to do with it afterwards...

Bathyj5572d ago

Go work for Sony.

They take care of their Devs.

BrunoM5572d ago

Even if fanboys dont like it that damn true...!!!

sony does have an amasing number of studios under them .. hey get these ones and i bet they can make a game bettear than halo war cus after all they did make halo wars ...

Bathyj5572d ago (Edited 5572d ago )

I didn't say it to be a fanboy or rub Xbox fans face in it. Its just a fact.

While M$ is throwing money everywhere buying exclusives or even more feeble, exclusive DLC (man thats so weak, this is what they've sunk to), their family they should be looking after is suffering. Studios are all just closing or leaving. Buying games is such short term vision. Looking after your studios is a long term investment.

Its almost like they're not going to make an XB3. I dont believe that, but what are we supposed to think when they dont care about 1st parties, and 1st parties usually make the best games, except on rare occassions like MGS. What will they have left for next gen? Are they just going to buy every game?

I suppose you could argue the best games on 360 haven't been 1st party but 3rd party. Thats true, but its likely cos they havent encouraged studios enough from the beginning. Seriously, if Gears is your best game, thats just not good enough in my book. So overatted. They should have made something better themselves by now.

A software company with no software developers.

LeonSKennedy4Life5572d ago

I forgot about Factor 5!

Yeah...I seem to remember Sony signing a contract with them so that they owned the company.

Oh, wait...that never happened. They just spent multi-millions on advertising Lair to help Factor 5.

I guess that WAS Sony's fault...for not shutting down a studio they didn't own.

You're a frickin' genius...you know that?

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 5572d ago
TheColbertinator5572d ago

That sucks.

Age of Empires was a great franchise

BrunoM5572d ago

i agree one of my fav pc games ..

what ever they fuking got money to pay for stupid dlc that people dont want and they didnt have money to keep a nice stupid with good devs open BULLLLL!!!!

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70°

The clandestine underworld of Game Boy demakes

Video Gamer writes: "There's a rogue underworld of devs operating clandestinely, still creating Game Boy games. We've spoken to one of them."

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80°

Telltale shares new images from The Wolf Among Us 2, release 2024

The long-awaited sequel to the 2013 narrative adventure is currently expected out sometime in 2024.

BlackOni12d ago

Oh hell yeah! I feel like this was one hell of an underrated game, and I'm glad to see that a part 2 is coming.

jznrpg12d ago (Edited 12d ago )

This was my favorite Telltale game. I’m definitely going to play this. Hopefully it has less jank than the Telltale games had. I didn’t think it would happen but I’m happy it’s coming

gold_drake11d ago

right? it was sooo good, cant wait for part 2

BlackCountryBob12d ago

Great, loved the first game and happy a sequel is coming but after such a lengthy development, are Telltale gonna be releasing it episodic with non specific time delays between episodes? If it is episodic, they need to have a full set of dates laid out for every episode so we know what we are getting & when like Resident Evil Revelations 2 did, buying episode 1 and not knowing when the rest will come is just unacceptable in 2024.

CobraKai11d ago

I always loved Telltale games. They were like those old choose your own adventures books.

290°

Gamers seek legal win that would stop devs from rendering online games unplayable

The organizer of "Stop Killing Games" hopes to get France and other governments to examine the legality of live service shutdowns. Scott has launched a new website, Stop Killing Games, to rally opposition to the games industry's "assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media," as he puts it.

-Foxtrot26d ago (Edited 26d ago )

Should probably get them to implement offline mode when it comes to games you can play single player

It's shitty playing something solo and having to be connect despite being offline within the game.

It's worse when you get the games which can't be paused, I remember the doorbell going during a huge fight in Monster Hunter World, it took me ages but realised you couldn't pause. I ended up getting slaughtered after spending so long almost killing it.

Yi-Long25d ago

Driveclub is one of my favourite games of all-time, but once Sony killed it, it's barely playable in offline; Leaderboards are obviously gone so one of the things I liked to do most in the game, Time-attack, is now pretty pointless, and every race you start there's a red text on thr screen telling you you're offline.

There honestky was no need to keep the offline so integrated with the online stuff, and it's made me wary of other games which are now 'always online'.

purple10125d ago

should do what gran truismo on ps54 did, after severs shut, they unlock everything in the campaign to be played offline

there's no need for anti-cheat 'always online' which was always their excuse, thats and updating gamer progression

neutralgamer199225d ago

I didn’t know that. That’s awesome

Jingsing25d ago

and put out a physical version at the end, it is extra money for them at the end of the day.

blacktiger25d ago

Ppl get confused about this lawsuit, this guy has a point, if you don't want to pay for server cause no one is playing that's fine, at least make it PVP, that isn't hard and people paid for the game. So there for it shouldn't be unplayable. Offline is not what he's fighting for but that would be single player. He just fighting for PVP as to dedicated if you going to take it down.

I agree with this one! I hope he wins!

SimpleSlave25d ago

"Offline is not what he's fighting for but that would be single player. "

Always Online does include fully fledged Single Player Campaigns as well. And that's why I think The Crew is being used; The Precedent that covers it all.

Games like The Division 1 and 2 also have Single Player Campaigns, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a fully fledged Single Player game but always Online. Which mean that unless uBeSawft patches them they will all cease to exist once uBeSawft pulls the plug.

Again, I think this is why The Crew is being used as the precedent, because it covers all the Online Only bases; Not just the usual Multiplayer PvE and PvP like an MMO or Shooters and their Servers, but also actual Single Player Campaigns that are sadly always online.

Inverno25d ago

Should pin this to let it be on top for a while. This sort of stuff should get some good amount of attention, could actually make some good change in the industry.

HyperMoused25d ago

SP games yes, MP games, its a question of whos maintaing the servers etc and keeing them online.

blackblades25d ago

PvP games it should work. I remember playing black ops offline with AI opponents but of course its funner with real and AI bots. I know some games are server base but I imagine if hard work put in to it that, it can work offline.

PRIMORDUS25d ago

At least on the PC side I say if a company doesn't want to support a game anymore just give it to the fans. They will keep it alive for years and years. Like UT2004 for example you can still play it today, or BF1942. For any SP games I just torrent and keep it forever if they pull the plug. 😊

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