Microsoft shutting down Ensemble Studios

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 September, 2008

Once Halo Wars is released in early 2009.

Microsoft will shut down Ensemble Studios once Halo Wars ships early next year.

The platform holder confirmed the news in a statement released overnight, describing it as "a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps [Microsoft Game Studios] on its growth path".

Inevitably there will be lay-offs, but Microsoft also said "the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios".

Furthermore, "Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible."

In order to keep things going in the interim, Shacknews reports word from employees that "incentives" have been offered to prevent them legging it.

Meanwhile, Kotaku reports that Microsoft's Shane Kim visited the Dallas studio personally to deliver the bad news.

Ensemble Studios, founded in the mid-'90s, is best known for its PC real-time strategy series Age of Empires, and was bought up by Microsoft in 2001.

Halo Wars, which is due out exclusively for Xbox 360, is an attempt to adapt some of that RTS knowhow and expand Microsoft's most cherished franchise into new areas. We played a bit of it at E3 and thought it was very promising.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (37) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Goffee #1 3 years ago

    C*cks! What's another few million $ on the fire? Age was pure class...

  • glo #2 3 years ago

    doesn't bode well for halo wars...

  • Inigo #3 3 years ago

    Thats a shame, i loved all the Age of Empires games. However, i thought that writing RTS exclusively for a console was a bad idea.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 08:36

  • Demento41 #4 3 years ago

    Is Halo Wars coming out on PC? Looks quite interesting.

    Edit: No it isn't. Stupid decision if you ask me.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 08:40

  • Xerx3s #5 3 years ago

    "C*cks! What's another few million $ on the fire? Age was pure class... "

    And understatement...

  • menage #6 3 years ago

    Very strange. Maybe they were smoking money down there:p?

  • Crovax20 #7 3 years ago

    I had a wtf moment there.

  • Kill_Crazy #8 3 years ago

    Can spend (a reported) $50 million on DLC but can't keep Ensemble afloat? Priorities all wrong IMO but then i'm not an MS 'money man'. Bad news for all :(

  • space_ace #9 3 years ago

    dispwned

  • groovychainsaw #10 3 years ago

    strange how microsoft are dumping all their first party studios (most of whom have done well for them). Probably is just a business decision, moving to more of a 3rd party model now (they do well off 3rd party games), but seems a touch short-sighted, are they going to rely on third parties for a future console launch?

  • Velios #11 3 years ago

    Ensemble also made Age of Mythology, a brilliant game. :( sad to see this happen.

  • Steroyd #12 3 years ago

    What the hell is Microsoft doing!?

    I wonder if this is why Bungie seperated themselves from Microsoft.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 09:20

  • Triggerhappytel #13 3 years ago

    I just don't see the sense in this - particularly when the studio heads are going on to form another studio. Microsoft first-party and closely-tied third party development teams seem to be dropping like flies over the past twelve months; they should be doing all they can to protect those still intact.

    Or what; they think good relations with Epic and Ubisoft are going to carry them forever?! Idiots.

  • dacicus #14 3 years ago

    Nothing that EA and Vivendi didn't do before. The end of an era with one of the last old studios closing. It's a miracle that Ensemble survived for such a long time. Look what happened to Origin,Westwoos, Sierra, Jane's,Bullfrog and so may others. And what's left on the US market? A bunch of really big corporations with no creativity whatsoever. Well, at least the europeans still have "zee" germans and "zee" russians to compensate (though russian tech support still needs a lot of work, in terms of creativity, those pesky slavs are pretty imaginative).

  • Triggerhappytel #15 3 years ago

    Yeah, don't forget those cunts at ActiBlizz recently put Massive Entertainment on the chopping block, too.

    It looks like any RTS development studios have a very short life-expectancy these days; irrespective of the quality of their output.


    I much of Europe is pretty innovative really - don't forget about the likes of Quantic Dream, DICE and Starbreeze. We're not bad here in Blighty, actually, what with the likes of Frontier and Real Time Worlds.

  • Eraysor #16 3 years ago

    I fondly remember having AoE2 LAN parties a few years ago with some truly epic battles. It'll be a shame to see Ensemble's demise. Also, if their jobs will disappear as soon as the game is finished, could they not just delay it forever?

  • Eraysor #17 3 years ago

    I fondly remember having AoE2 LAN parties a few years ago with some truly epic battles. It'll be a shame to see Ensemble's demise. Also, if their jobs will disappear as soon as the game is finished, could they not just delay it forever?

  • dacicus #18 3 years ago

    Yeah, a lot of good companies disappeared from the map, being bought by those huge corporations. And, yes the old Europe it's more willing to assume risks (i look at those guys that are releasing Pro Cycling Manager, they took quite a risk doing such a game, and yet the game is selling and the same goes with a number of games produced on the old continent). I wonder where the EA that we knew at the ened of 80's, the beginning of 90's disappeared. When did they become the greedy conglomerate that is today...

  • Turambar #19 3 years ago

    Fiscally rooted? Surely forming a new studio and offering "incentives" will cost them more than just keep ing Ensemble as it is? At least in the short term.

  • Gunzberg #20 3 years ago

    After Age of Empires 2 expansion, I never bought another of their games - didn't enjoy the shift into non-isometric 3D

    If they made an AOE 4 with updated graphics in isometric format I'd get it

  • miiiguel #21 3 years ago

    While I did like Age of Empires (long time ago) those guys are kinda slow at work aren't they? They do almost always the same kinda game and yet that take ages.

    Anyway this probably has more to do with "fiscal engineering" or other hardcore money related formula which I don't understand.

  • oreillymj #22 3 years ago

    So much for loyalty. Deliver the game, then f**k off.

    The weird thing is that they plan to pay these guys redundancy (although labour laws in some US states probably mean they can be laid off with no payment) and then rehire most of them. How does that make fiscal sense?

    Or is that just total PR bullshit?

  • Rash' #23 3 years ago

    Kill_Crazy, you summed it up perfectly. While MS focus on timed third party exclusives and DLC the rest focus on their first party content. The priorities are most definitely wrong if they have to dismantle such recognised dev.

  • ThePissartist #24 3 years ago

    WTF are Microsoft up to at the moment? I wonder what 'growth' they have planned...

    I would have thought a game like this would've been perfect for introducing a motion controller to the hardcore gamers. Imagine waving one of those things around to highlight units like you would with a mouse. It'd make RTS games work on consoles!!

  • paketep #25 3 years ago

    Fucking Microsoft bastards. They will not stop even at destroying profitable studios, it wasn't enough for them to force Ensemble to make their POS RTS console game for Halo.

    Mr. Unangsnststst must be having an erection with all this.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #26 3 years ago

    I'm not sure where I stand with this one. I think owning studios makes sense once you secure quite a few of them. This is why Nintendo and Sega could produce huge amounts of quality exclusives over the years. Sony have had 3 generations now to essentially do the same thing.

    I don't think MS feel they can compete. It may seem short sighted but it may be the best decision for them. The thing that will probably keep Rare & Lionhead safe is their versatility.

    All the studios that MS have gotten rid of tend to be one trick ponies and it's entirely possible that Turn 10 is going once Forza 3 is done.

    If you factor in that it's tricky for games to turn a profit and that 1st party studios tend to spend a long time making games, MS probably thought it cheaper to spend 5 lots of $20mil securing publishing and/or exclusivity rights for 5 cherry picked diverse games, than it is to spend however many millions (Rare $1Bil ??!) to buy studios and then $50 million per game in development.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 12:13

  • sharky_ob #27 3 years ago

    Great way to motivate the troops.

    Something tells me the final polish might be lacking on Halo Wars.

  • BobsUncle #28 3 years ago

    They should all bugger off and work for Relic.

  • RedSparrows #29 3 years ago

    Ensemble and Relic together

    oh that'd be joyous

    sod it, throw in Creative Assembly also and you'd have the most godly RTS studio ever.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 12:50

  • Tomnd #30 3 years ago

    So is it less morally wrong to download their games now that they are out of business?

  • sanctusmortis #31 3 years ago

    Déja vu: ask FASA employees how they felt...

  • UncleLou #32 3 years ago

    After Age of Empires 2 expansion, I never bought another of their games - didn't enjoy the shift into non-isometric 3D


    Not quite sure what you mean - while I didn't think AoE 3 was all that great (while AoE 2 is one of my favourite games), it did have an isometric 3D perspective. You never need to do anything with the camera, it plays just like a 2D game.

  • miiiguel #33 3 years ago

    "The weird thing is that they plan to pay these guys redundancy (although labour laws in some US states probably mean they can be laid off with no payment) and then rehire most of them. How does that make fiscal sense?"
    It doesn't seem to. But you're right, for some odd reason they seem to be re-hiring them or pay them redundacy, which goes along with Forbes Top 10 best companies to work for, where MS is nº 8. In Portugal they are n. 1 for 3 years in a row.

  • adamamosa #34 3 years ago

    Not good. I wonder how long before they do the same to rare?

  • CreepinJesus #35 3 years ago

    @ TriggerHappy

    Don't forget Rare and Codies :)

  • TheNinkyNonk #36 3 years ago

    Well, if you will sell yourself out to a global corp. what do you expect?

  • Calgon #37 3 years ago

    They did say Microsoft Game Studios' growth specifically(rules out "3rd party only" theory) so maybe there are bigger plans for them... IIRC correctly they have been turning profit there rather than taking losses so either they really are making some poor decisions recently(letting Bungie, Bizarre and Bioware slip away) or they have some big plans we dont know about(they seem to be adopting the hush hush Nintendo approach these days... but suprises are good sometimes, that way a) its not seeming old already by the time it launches b) give the trolls and anti Xbox brigade less time to nit pick and tell everyone they know its gonna be crap).

    Id love to see MS try and build up MGS to a Nintendo like first party status, it isnt beyond them to get the structure in place its just securing the talent and ensuring the quality and fresh content. Whens the next big gaming event for MS? TGS? Have they had their own yet? Hopefully Shane Kim will shed some light on whats been going on with these type of decisions because it does look like they are downsizing MGS and dont see the importance of 1st party support... but then ask any gamer if they think good first party support is important and you already know their answer, as do MS(and they wont have forgot Sony's "we have the more first party support than MS and Nintendo combined" arrogance a couple of E3's ago.).