Ensemble Studios is being shut down.:(
I was completely blown away by this news. Ensemble has been a rock in the industry for over a decade, churning out the highly successful Age of Empires series. Age of Empires III, released in 2005, was their best selling effort to date with 2 million copies.
So what in the world could have gone wrong? So many thoughts went through my head when I read the news... Is Halo Wars terrible? Is it not focus testing well with the Bungie Fanboy Nation? Was Ensemble's burn rate incredibly excessive? Was there some kind of internal dispute with MS Corporate? Did ES have some other game that was a huge money sink? Is MS pushing their cost-cutting measures to the extreme? More details might come to light in the future, but I'm guessing that the whole story will never be revealed to the public.
I'm still super interested to see how Halo Wars turns out. It's obvious that there are a lot of passionate people working on the game and the Halo IP should give them a license to print money. It's just so weird that the MS axe would fall at this point in development... the game isn't even slated for a release this year. :(
Being a part of the Outrage Games shutdown back in 2003 I know how much something like this can hurt. THQ axed Outrage the day that Alter Echo (my first game as a professional) went gold. It was completely out of left field and utterly devastating. I feel for the guys and gals in Texas right now... here's to hoping you all land on your feet!
-Brad!
