September 10th, 2008

No More Ensemble Studios!

No matter what some people around me may say, I am still far from reaching that level of knowledge to consider myself an experienced gamer. I am not talking about headshots or efficient resource gathering, power levelling, or dreaming every night about all the spells from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. There's only one thing I consider "supreme knowledge," from my point of view - when you hear the name of a game or game producer, you must easily remember all there is to know about it, especially since some great names have crossed the Styx, and others are following as we speak...

If you didn't play at least one game from the Age of Empires series, then you can't call yourself a gamer, that's what I think. If you ask me about Age of Empires, I must confess I played a lot the first two games in the series, including their expansion packs, but I also enjoyed Age of Empires III a lot. Now, it seems Microsoft is going to put an end to Ensemble Studios, the creators of the series.

Yes, you got that right - independent developer starting way back in 1995, and Microsoft-owned since 2001, Ensemble Studios developed more than just the famous AoE, since

Age of Mythology is also one of their offsprings. Currently, they are working on the Halo Wars RTS, but this will be their swan song...

The story goes like this - Microsoft corporate VP Shane Kim told Ensemble Studios employees today that, despite being the ones behind over 20 million game units sold so far, Halo Wars will be their last project. Reasons? Who cares about them, after all? Microsoft may be trying to cut costs and stay in the console race, but I think they should keep Ensemble, and not for good times' sake.

Just imagine this - "I am very happy to tell you that, only one week after its release, Halo Wars is already a great success, with over 2 million units sold so far, but this is it. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your services, you're all fired." Isn't life a *****, sometimes?