Ensemble says good-bye

By Polybren, GameSpotPosted Jan 30, 2009 12:08 pm PT

While studio closures are becoming depressingly common, few of the outfits to be shuttered have carried with them the pedigree of Ensemble Studios. Known for its tremendously successful real-time strategy series Age of Empires, Ensemble Studios has been living on borrowed time since September, when...

While studio closures are becoming depressingly common, few of the outfits to be shuttered have carried with them the pedigree of Ensemble Studios. Known for its tremendously successful real-time strategy series Age of Empires, Ensemble Studios has been living on borrowed time since September, when Microsoft confirmed it would be closing the developer after it had completed work on the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo Wars.

At the time, Age of Empires creator Bruce Shelley blogged on the studio's official Web site about the team's reaction to the news and revealed that a number of core Ensemble developers (sans Shelley) would be striking out to form their own new company. Now in what he expects to be the site's final blog entry, Shelley said that isn't the only potential phoenix rising from the Ensemble ashes.

"There are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well," Shelley wrote. "There were a lot of outstanding game developers here and it will be interesting to see how and what they do, both individually and as new groups, in the years ahead."

In the rest of the post, Shelley updated readers about Halo Wars' plans and ongoing support for Age of Empires and shared a peek at the developer's bittersweet party to celebrate the completion of its final game.

"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," Shelley said, adding, "It is worth mentioning that about 60 percent of the people who worked on Age of Empires I were with the studio to the end. And it was a really special group of people who pulled together for the long hours and hard work to finish our last game to our standards."

381 Comments

  • valttu

    Posted Nov 28, 2009 5:48 am PT

    Wow... I got shivers when I read this. I was never a huge fan of Ensemble but I know that they made some legendary games... R.I.P!!!

  • SquareEnixFan13

    Posted Nov 25, 2009 7:46 pm PT

    This sucks. In all seriousness, this truly sucks. I love the Age of Empires series very much, but I suppose we should all be glad we got several great games before the company was closed. Goodbye and we'll miss you Ensemble.

  • alosborne

    Posted Mar 20, 2009 1:28 pm PT

    AOE III was one of my first RTS games. Goodbye Ensemble you will be missed.

  • Crazy_Guns

    Posted Mar 20, 2009 1:37 am PT

    Sad to see you go Ensemble, we love you! The first Age of Empires was one of my favorite games when I was younger, used to play it on the LAN with my dad all the time. Best wishes for a happy and prosperous future!

  • Omega189

    Posted Mar 19, 2009 3:31 pm PT

    The first two Age of Empires were great. I never played the 3rd, but I'm unhappy that they've closed anyway.

  • Megaship

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 12:57 am PT

    NO!!! I can't believe this! Not this company too!

  • Dagamemonkey

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:34 pm PT

    NO!!!!
    NO!!!!
    NO!!!!

  • alixkid

    Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:22 pm PT

    /Cry

  • jason19

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 8:47 pm PT

    well i hope halo good end i like the downlond look good but keed good work next build halo 4 pls come on

  • jameslee1997

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 4:28 am PT

    aoe and aom were both great. the halo mmorpg could've been great

  • NPSage

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 8:01 pm PT

    I loved the the Halo Wars demo. MS you're an idiot for giving these guys up. Finally a dev finds a way to put an good RTS on a console and you get rid of them?

  • Oblivionic

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 8:29 pm PT

    Sad

    AoE was my first rts game It was excellent by its time. AoE II was solid multiplayer rts game and AoM was great. I dont like AoE III as previous AoE games but it is solid rts game too

  • dersoldatgaston

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 10:43 am PT

    No more AOE.I love those games..This is very sad..

  • d_kell411

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 12:16 am PT

    I honestly thought the demo was amazingly fun, I've been playing skirmish for like 2 days now, on one map with one faction...I can only imagine what the final product will be like.

    Ensemble is the most prestigious and best known RTS specific company in the industry. (Excluding Westwood and Blizzard) Their Age of Empires franchise marked the dawn of a new genre and I'll miss Ensemble's creations greatly.

    Microsoft...Ensemble was doing fine until you bought them. But no worries, they'll come back and give Microsoft Games a run for their money. Ensemble's too good with Real Time Strategy to let this be the end of them.

  • hollow56771

    Posted Feb 7, 2009 12:48 pm PT

    this is like if Microsoft closes Bungie down takes the Halo franchise with them thank god that dosent happen! Ensemble will be missed lets just hope AOE will still do good

  • zallo

    Posted Feb 7, 2009 12:01 pm PT

    Goodbye Ensemble you will be missed.........man this is almost as sad as it would be if valve shut down *shudder*

  • sonictank

    Posted Feb 6, 2009 6:18 pm PT

    Thankyou for all the great games you have and i hope when you guys get to the new studios you give us more great games. R.I.P ensamble

  • tbolt_88

    Posted Feb 6, 2009 4:58 pm PT

    At least they go out with a bang since just from playing the demo it seems Halo Wars is one hell of a great game and a lot of fun and im not even typically a fan of RTS.

  • ckat609

    Posted Feb 6, 2009 4:14 pm PT

    I'm with Monkelf... I hope these new studios are the turning point for newer, fresher, greater games that will blow behemoth companies' butts away (i.e. EA)

  • Monkelf

    Posted Feb 5, 2009 8:48 pm PT

    All I can say is I hope these two studios blow up the gaming market and make a crap load of money, then dedicates a game at their peak to Microsoft for being the reason why they are so successful. That would be awesome irony. And all you people talking crap about Ensemble, you have poor taste in games and never really enjoyed a game to begin with. And all that time having friends who brag about AoE and how you should play it, but sticking to your stubborn ways never actually tried it. Shame on you for putting down such a customer service and player inspired driven studio.

Age of Empires Quick Links

Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum

advertisement

Related Unions

Age of Empires Boxshot Enlarge the boxshot
Age of Empires

Game Stats

Full Game Details »Close

Games you may like…

Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.

See More Similar Games
advertisement