Ensemble bids fans a fond farewell

By Robert Purchese Published 2 February, 2009

Two studios to rise from ashes.

Ensemble Studios boss Bruce Shelley has written a fond farewell to fans in what will probably be his last blog post for the company.

"We are working our way through the final week with mixed emotions," writes Shelley. "We have a lot to be proud of and new opportunities are beckoning, but it is also sad to see this particular great adventure coming to an end.

"Boxes are piled in the hallways for trash; people are giving away games and other stuff they don't want anymore; computers are being wiped; and our corporate IDs are being turned in. Although we will be keeping in touch through some alumni initiatives, many of us may not cross paths again," he continues.

"There are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well," he adds. "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."

One of those studios will offer future support for Ensemble titles, including the soon-to-be-released Halo Wars. Jason Pace from Microsoft Game Studios told Eurogamer the game has series potential, and is far from a 'one-off' in the eyes of the platform holder.

There's no word on what the other studio to rise from Ensemble's ashes will be, but Pace said MGS is keen to keep working with the developer. On Age of Empires 4? Pace couldn't comment.

Halo Wars will be out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 27th February. A demo will be released on Xbox Live Marketplace on 5th February - this Thursday.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Xerx3s #1 3 years ago

    :(

    There goes the best rts maker.

  • Evolution #2 3 years ago

    but Relic aren't closing?

  • JohnnyWashnGo #3 3 years ago

    Another day, another studio.

  • coolbritannia #4 3 years ago

    /Scans surroundings. Calculates possibility of future Halo Wars titles. Terminates Sarah Connor/

    They'll be back.

  • Nithron #5 3 years ago

    The most depressing thing about all this is, that none of the shovelware developers seem to be shutting down.

  • Doctor_What #6 3 years ago

    Sad to see another company going, but at least he sounds optimistic that many will have new jobs.

  • DutchDemons #7 3 years ago

    so they close 1 studio, form 2 other ones and both will still be working with MS? in fact, 1 will still be working on a game made by the closed ES?

    I don't get it...is this some corporate 'write-off'scheme I just can't seem to uncover? or is there a simple explanation for this, like...they need to layoff some redundant personnel?

  • Dizzy #8 3 years ago

    "so they close 1 studio, form 2 other ones and both will still be working with MS? in fact, 1 will still be working on a game made by the closed ES? "

    It is a bit of a weird setup yes. Some of the people stay with MS and the rest form two new companies that still work for MS. Probably some accounting wizardry going on there.

  • Pirotic #9 3 years ago

    Such a great studio with a proud history, it's a real shame to see them go. Hopefully the new studios will follow in it's footsteps of producing awesome RTS games (for PC!!)

  • Tomnd #10 3 years ago

    Weird, they make one game that doesn't sell so well AOE 3 and they get shut down. Also if the new studio make AOE 4, whats the point in shutting ensemble down?

  • Xerx3s #11 3 years ago

    DutchDemons: MS never mentioned their policy but from their moves it's crystal clear. They want no internal studio's (or at least as little as possible) and want to have a load of independent 2nd/3rd party studio's. Bungie, Smith & Tinker (fasa), Epic, etc. are now all structured in that way.

    In a way it could be better, they get more independence while retaining access to MS IP's, capital, resources, etc. For ms it obviously becomes easier to cut away things when needed obviously.

  • mull #12 3 years ago

    /hugs Ensemble hat and tshirt won in map design competition

  • Triggerhappytel #13 3 years ago

    MS are still fuckers for shutting this studio down. Why not just 'allow' the studio independance, if that's where the problem arose? I can't fathom how it makes sense how this studio is shutting down, the team is being split up, and yet many of them will not only continue to work with MS but will directly continue to work on the game which they were developing before they were shut down.

    Logic, anyone?!

  • davisorle #14 3 years ago

    Good luck