Microsoft publish Age of Empires 3 copies without informing Robot Entertainment of CD-Keys
Microsoft has, bewilderingly released new copies of Age of Empires 3 and its set of expansions including the newly released Age of Empires 3 Collectors edition. One would imagine that Microsoft would be contacting Robot Entertainment so that they can prepare the Ensemble Studios Online (ESO) server to accept the new CD-keys enabling purchasers to play the game online. However it seems that Microsoft have been less forthcoming with Robot Entertainment about these re-releases by not informing Robot Entertainment about these new CD keys leaving purchasers bemused that copies of the game are invalid.
Perhaps someone at Microsoft is emailing the wrong person and has forgotten that the @ensemblestudios.com email address has been shut down.
One must worry from this news about the quality of communication from Microsoft to Robot Entertainment following the closing of internal studio Ensemble. It is sad that poor performance from Microsoft is potentially adversely affecting the reputation of Robot Entertainment who end users believe is offering the support for ESO. Community Manager for Robot Entertainment, Duncan Stanley says:
Microsoft, the publisher of all of the Age of Empires III games and expansions, recently released new copies of the game, and the expansions.
When they did this, they did not give us, Robot Entertainment, the cd-keys first to upload to our server so that people who buy the game can authenticate and create accounts. Because of this, users may get Error 100 [Bad CD-Key] when trying to create or upgrade an ESO account.
Microsoft and Robot Entertainment are aware of the problem, and we are working to resolve it as speedily as we can.
We will upload the cd-keys to the server as soon as we get them.
We apologize for the frustration.
We will keep you posted on updates with this unfortunate situation
Paul Bettner: Newtoy to become a “Nintendo of the iPhone”
![bettner_paul[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bettner_paul1.jpg "bettner_paul[1]")
NewToy’s Paul Bettner an ex programmer at Ensemble Studios was one of the first to start up a new games company out of Ensemble’s ashes. Paul is now talking to Gamasutra about the new start up company and how he in-visages the companies future. Paul hopes that NewToy can appeal to the unique iPhone market taking into account the platforms easy connectivity and user interaction. The Gamasutra article explains how well the “Chess with Friends” application has been doing since launch, although missing out on the Top 100 the game has had some excellent download numbers:
Chess With Friends came from that philosophy. The game got good support from Apple, which featured the game prominently on the App Store as Pick of the Week in March. The vote of confidence led to a nice jump in sales.
But it still didn’t break the top 100 Apps on the sales ranking list on the App Store, meaning visibility for the game would be low. For iPhone developers, making the top 100 is a crucial requisite for having a successful game.
Bettner said he didn’t pack up and go home. There is a life outside of the Top 100, and it involves sustained growth of a game’s sales and good consumer retention, two things possessed by Chess With Friends and its Scrabble-style counterpart, Words With Friends, he said.
Combined, Chess and Words, which both have ad-supported free and paid versions, have been downloaded 500 million times so far. They draw 50,000 active users daily, and are tracking 200,000 for September, Bettner said. The ratio of free to paid versions is 5:1.
Check out the full article on Gamasutura.
As NewToy continue development on new and exciting applications such as the much awaited “World War Robot” with acclaimed artist Ashley Wood.
Good luck NewToy!
Mysterious “Age of Empires” press folder revealed to be announced as a Age 3 Collectors edition
![agecollectionsept8[2]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/agecollectionsept82.jpg "agecollectionsept8[2]")
The mysterious press folder found on a website which handles Microsoft press releases for the games division has finally been filled with Age of Empires content. Unfortunately it is not a new Age of Empires game as first hoped. Instead Microsoft will finally release all three Age of Empires 3 games (the original plus the two expansions). Until now only Age 3 and the Warchiefs expansion have been bundled together and players have had to purchase the Asian Dynasties separately. Now all the Age 3 content can be picked up in one handy box set.
Interestingly and sadly, this may be the last box art which we see bearing the Ensemble Studios logo having first thought Halo Wars may be the last.
So where does this leave the Age of Empires series going forward? It has been reported before in a gamesindustry.biz interview with Phil Spencer of Microsoft Game Studios that:
And we do have a plan for Age of Empires, and it is something we’ll continue to push, it just didn’t require that we had Ensemble Studios as an entity inside of MGS in Dallas, as full time internal employees, as a studio that would be the sole source of Age content going forward.
So hmm.. lets hope there is a plan for more new Age content going forward hopefully to be developed by ex Ensemble teams.
Paul Jaquays blogs about Halo Wars map “Pirth Outskirts”
Paul Jaquays former artist at Ensemble Studios has blogged on the Halo Wars website with some additional concept art from the map design of Pirth Outskirts, a 1v1 Halo Wars skirmish map.
I developed the area as a remote vacation destination with mysterious ancient ruins, modern hotels, and dramatically steep, mist-shrouded cliffs into which breathtaking waterfalls poured majestically. On top of this, I layered the planet’s recent, tragic history. Covenant bombs had cut the area off from the cities and turned the man-made structures into smoking rubble.
It is not unusual for map designs to go through various designs before the final choice. Here you can see one of the earlier concepts for the map. You can click the image below to find text commentary on the image.
![Pirth_Outskirts_concept[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Pirth_Outskirts_concept1.jpg "Pirth_Outskirts_concept[1]")
The end result of Pirth Outskirts appears below, quite a difference in terms of colour, waterfalls and buildings!
![PirthLA_final[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/PirthLA_final1.jpg "PirthLA_final[1]")
Paul Jaquays since Ensemble has moved onto CCP North America as a Senior Level Designer. Clearly CCP recognised the talent of this excellent artist and CCP can now enjoy quality levels and maps just like the one above!
Check out the full blog on HaloWars.com where Duncan Stanley, Community Manager offers some top tips for the map!
Windstorm Studios shows off two concept art pieces
Since the closure of Ensemble Studios there have been many teams working on exciting games. We have seen iPhone games from developers FuzzyCube and NewToy and now its time to get a first glimpse at a larger scale game as Windstorm Studios headed up by past Ensemble Programmer Dusty Monk today releases two concept art images for the mysterious MMO game.
Dusty Monk has been eager to launch an MMO title for sometime and worked on the Halo MMO at Ensemble Studios considerably. We hope now that with the right investment and publishing partners Dusty will be able to fulfill his dream of getting his own MMO out there. Hopefully with the GDC soon coming up Dusty will be able to prove the project is exciting and maybe we’ll get some more information about the futuristic (flying cars and all that) game!
For more details and wallpaper friendly versions of these excellent images head over to the Windstorm website!
Rumor: New “Age of Empires” coming?
![Ensemble_Studios_Age_of_Empires_3[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Ensemble_Studios_Age_of_Empires_31.jpg "Ensemble_Studios_Age_of_Empires_3[1]")
Cinema Blend is reporting that they have stumpled accross a new “Age of Empires” folder on Microsoft’s press server. The new folder was created on the 22nd of September and with the PAX games conference starting tomorrow they reckon it might be possible that a new Age of Empires could be announced.
No word who would be developing the title as Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios claim to be focussing on new IP. It is currently unknown if despite this any Ex Ensemble Studios group would be taking the series forward.
Watch this space closely! Follow www.twitter.com/remember_es for updates!
PAX begins tomorrow and it’s possible we could see a big reveal from Microsoft. Specifically, there might be a new Age of Empires unveiled.
At some point last night, a folder entitled “Age of Empires” was created in the press directory of Microsoft’s outside PR firm (via GMR FM). There’s nothing in said folder yet, though. PAX runs from September 4-6 so perhaps it’ll be filled with screenshots and movies of some glorious new AoE game during that period of time.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Rumor-New-Age-Of-Empires-Coming-19671.html
Halo Wars wins best Strategy game in G4TV gamers choice awards & Dave Pottinger looks back on the project
Great news for all Halo Wars fans and Ensemble-lites, Halo Wars the best selling real time strategy game on any current generation console has been awarded best strategy game in the G4TV gamers choice awards. Ensemble’s “Halo Wars” won the award ahead of the competition by a “huge margin“! Congratulations Ensemble Studios! You can watch the incredibly short, (and perhaps a poor show) video of the announcement below:
http://g4tv.com/gphoria2009/index.html?cat=76
Considering this award now is a great time for Lead Designer Dave Pottinger to talk about looking back on the game discuss lessons learnt. So lets take a delve down these corridors and see what he has to say..
![jack[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/jack1-300x199.jpg "jack[1]")
Delve down if you dare..
The first thing Dave looks at is the all important gameplay. If the gameplay isnt right you’ve got a BIG problem. Luckily Ensemble had already started on a console RTS project before working on Halo Wars by using Age of Mythology as a basis for testing out the platform and refining the key controls.
Start with good gameplay you know and then go from there. If you’ve followed Halo Wars, you know that we started the project by making Age of Mythology playable with a gamepad. Once we had that, we knew we had solid basic gameplay to rely on. That was essential.
Halo Wars is a huge project, we’re talking big big IP with lots and lots of fans following the series and many also taking the time to explore the details of the story though novels and other outside of game media. You know you don’t want to mess around with the basics when your working with Halo. Most of all you don’t want to upset this guy:
![mc[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/mc1-199x300.jpg "mc[1]")
Had to understand the motivations behind the existing characters in order to create compelling new characters. We needed to realize where the canon was flexible in order to squeeze in the things we needed. And, in a few cases, we decided to go against canon to make a better game/experience (e.g. the Spartan’s shield and sound). I don’t know how we would have made those calls without tons of research, chats with Bungie, etc.
Another key fact was that sex appeal wins. People love cool trailers. People love big explosions. People love Halo Wars trailers without MAC Blast and Scarabs…. not so much. Having cool things to show off in videos like the MAC and Scarab played an important role in drawing people into the game and giving the RTS style a try. Boring marines vs grunts only management wasn’t going to get anywhere.
It an E3 demo or getting dragged into your bud’s living room because “YOU GOTTA SEE THIS”, cool graphics are always sexy
Making use of Microsoft’s army of testers was important. You cant get enough testing.
Console cert processes are a confusing black hole. We finish. We think. The discs get sent off. Time passes. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes it’s a good answer, sometimes it’s not. We were lucky that the Microsoft Game Studio testers we had were so good; they saved us countless headaches that would have killed us in cert.
The other major thing to get right, is quite importantly, balance. You cant ever stop balance testing, even post release.
Balance is never over. Ever. Well, maybe if the Arch of Time collapses and the continuum implodes. But, then the Lord Foul is probably still pissed about those OP Gremlins.
Dave concludes his blog post looking back at one of the most important reasons that made him proud to work on Halo Wars. The team at Ensemble Studios. Considering the studio knew they were closing 6 months before the game was released, everyone knew they were on borrowed time and that the future post Ensemble could be bleak. I cant imagine how tough it is to work in that environment and keep the quality bar high but the team at Ensemble did. Lets just refer to the news at the top of this post.. best selling and winning best strategy game awards. The team did an exceptional job – as a player you wouldn’t even know the pressures the team was under until the credits.
Passion beats Talent. Team beats Individual. Finishing Halo Wars was the hardest thing I’ve ever done professionally. For so many reasons, the project was just a ton of work to get out the door. Amid uncertain futures, the Ensemble team pulled together in a way that exceeded every possible expectation I had. I’m proud to say I worked on Halo Wars just because of that.
Be sure to check out the full blog on the HaloWars.com website.
More art from the art bots and playtesting from David Leary
Its been a busy week so apologies to readers for the lateness of updates here at Remember Ensemble Studios. Good news is though if you haven’t already been on the Halo Wars and Robot Entertainment websites youve been missing out on some juicy blogs and art. Kicking it off we have Robot and Ex Ensemble designer David Leary talking about playtesting which Ensemble was quite famous for in its development cycle. As always theres some cool pictures of the old Ensemble office in comparison to the new Robot play testing labs.
![16thplaytest[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/16thplaytest1.jpg "16thplaytest[1]")
One of the Ensemble playtest rooms on the 16th floor
![fandlc[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/fandlc11.jpg "fandlc[1]")
The new Robot Entertainment play test room
David Leary’s blog post is an informative look into just how Ensemble executed its much talked about play testing and is a good read over on the HaloWars.com website. Or here’s a little snipped of the action:
“Managing a Halo Wars playtest session was a lot like herding cats. Some of the playtests were scheduled, but late in the project, a lot of sessions would get called on an as-needed basis. I’d page for testers over the intercom, but since everyone had other responsibilities, I’d often only get four or five people on the first call. Usually a second page would fill the rest of the seats. If that didn’t work, I’d start walking around the office – it was hard for my co-workers to turn down a personal request, especially if I groveled.”
Mean while over in Art Bot corner the Clash of the Titans is continuing with two entries from grand artists Won Choi and Bart Tiongson. First up we have Won’s Poseidon and Perseus almost painting look a like art below:
![Clash_of_Titans06[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Clash_of_Titans061-300x185.jpg "Clash_of_Titans06[1]")
Bart Tiongson is next with his take on Medusa:
![Medusa_Post2[2]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Medusa_Post22.jpg "Medusa_Post2[2]")
She’s looking much more “chilled” than she was in Chris Moffit’s scary picture!
If this outstanding series of art is anything to go by we can expect grand things from Robot Entertainment’s currently un announced game. But will it be mythology.. or something else all together?!?
Ex Microsoft publishing exec Ed Fries talks to Gamasutra
Ed Fries has recently been involved in a “looking back” interview with Gamasutra. The ex Microsoft Game Studios executive was responsible for starting the Microsoft Games division and controlled it right up until the launch of the Xbox 360. Ed Fries is significant as he lead the acquisition of Ensemble Studios after the Age of Empires series proved to be a big profitable hit for the new division.
By then, we were up to maybe 5 or 600 people… and some weeks we would be the leading PC publisher in the country. We weren’t as big as Electronic Arts in general at the time, but we were getting there.”
It has become clear that it was only after the acquisition of Ensemble Studios that Microsoft was able to reap the rewards of the games division. The success of Ensemble games lead to Microsoft increasing investment in the games division enabling them to start looking at home consoles and acquiring more studios such as Bungie, Lionhead and Rare.
That, says Fries, is when “these crazy guys walked into my office and told me they had this idea to get Microsoft into the console business. They were from the DirectX team, and they wanted to make this thing called the ‘Direct X-Box.”
Direct X-Box, of course, was truncated to ‘Xbox,’ — and “marketing hated the name,” says Fries. “They went off and created this whole, long list of better names for the machine.”
In focus testing, the marketing team left the name ‘Xbox’ on that long list simply as a control, to demonstrate to everyone why it was a horrible name for a console. “Of course, ‘Xbox’ outscored, in focus testing, everything they came up with. They had to admit it was going to be the Xbox.”
The Xbox was greenlit by Microsoft upper brass, giving Fries and his team less than two years to pull together the first-party launch lineup. “We were lucky to team up with people like Bizarre Creations to create Project Gotham Racing… and Bungie, we did the acquisition at that time.”
In 2004 Ed Fries left Microsoft Game Studios at the 360’s launch having developed the division from scratch for some 18 years. With the departure of Ed Fries the division was shaked up with alot of new management being brought in for the division. Bruce Shelley of Ensemble Studios frequently suggested that relationships with these new execs was not as good as those under the old leadership.
The Gamasutra interview provides good insight to what Microsoft and Ed Fries wanted Microsoft Game Studios to be, before and after Ensemble Studios and other studios were acquired.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24831
Matt Pritchard in classic Gamasutra Age of Empires interview archive
Gamasutra has lifted the lid on a classic interview with Ex Ensemble graphics engine programmer Matt Pritchard. Matt joined Ensemble in the early days of Age of Empires development, so early that the game was called “Dawn of Man” before being renamed “Age of Empires” later on. The archived interview is an excellent read for Ensemble and Age of Empires fans. Reading the article you should recognise many names including Tim “timotron” Deen who has worked at Ensemble since Age 1 right up until Halo Wars and the studio disbandment. Tim Deen is now working at Robot Entertainment. Matt Pritchard went on after Age of Mythology to work on BlackSite: Area 51.
The interview talks about some of the choices made at Ensemble about the games design, multiplayer and testing along with details about how the game was programmed. Matt’s primary role was developing the “Genie” graphics engine which powered Age of Empires 1 and 2. Matt’s efforts with the engine managed to increase the initial framerate of 7-14FPS right up to 55FPS. The remainder of the interview discusses things that went well such as the games database driven design, staying in close contact with the publisher (Microsoft) and how Ensemble’s management truly respected its employees. Many of the good points that Matt talked about in the article remained true right up until the end of the studio including the database driven design and employee morale, maybe not so much the publisher relations aspect, though.
Of course a large scale game development like Age of Empires comes with its bugs and these are also talked about in the article. A late beta test, lack of multi player testing on residential modems and not planning for a patch rank highly. In the original release of the game some players found online play unsustainable due to lag time and drop outs over slow 56k modem speeds. Due to the whizzy and fast equipment at Ensemble Studios the testing which took place internally did not necessarily reflect the speeds players would get on the outside. Luckily the good communication with management at Ensemble and Microsoft allowed for the creation of the 1.0a patch which duly rectified most of the multiplayer issues.
Alongside a retro article comes a retro picture of Ensemble Studios staff in 1997. See if you can spot some familiar faces in the picture below:
Looks like Christmas!
I encourage all fans to have a read of the Gamasutra article below, delving into some history of the studios early days. Ensemble Studios is sorely missed. 🙁
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24767
