Last tour of Ensemble Studios; cancelled game concepts revealed; half employees to follow Goodman to new studio
Today Gamasutra has published their last t our of Ensemble Studios at this link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3919/ensemble_studios_the_last_tour.php
This is a must read for any Age, Halo Wars or Ensemble fan. I thought I would pick out some main points of the article:
Ensemble was working on a Halo MMO which was expected to be the full mission of the studio until its sudden cancellation by Microsoft
Other games prototyped included : a fantasy-adventure RPG called Sorcerer; Nova, a “Diablo in space” game; a pirate-themed take on Diablo; a game called Wrench; a Ratchet & Clank-style platformer called Bam (Read link above for details on these. Qouted from Gamasutra)
Half of Ensemble employees will join Tony Goodman in a new studio
The article contains many pictures of Ensemble Studios and prototype images which are well worth looking at.
Expect more press stories like these in the coming days along with announcements of Tony Goodman’s new studio.
It looked like Ensemble was an excellent place to work with employees shouting praises and willing to join Tony Goodman again for Ensemble round 2.
We’ll keep you up to date.
Two new companies to form out of Ensemble
Bruce Shelley confirmed in his blog that there will be two new companies forming out of Ensemble employees. One of those studios will be providing support for ESO (Ensemble Online) and Halo Wars and it is presumed that this studio will be run by Ensemble head Tony Goodman though this has not been confirmed. It is completely unknown as to who may be leading the other company. One might ask why Tony Goodman’s new studio is not employing all of Ensemble’s staff. This is because the new studio will not have enough resources and size to employ everyone unfortunately. However as both studios gain momentum there is nothing to stop a partnership in the future.
Strangely enough Microsoft have announced that they want to have a relationship with the “new” Ensemble and that there is very good possibility of games being created under the Microsoft Games Studio banner. There has been no news yet as to what projects the studio will be working on but AOE4 and Halo Wars 2 are possibilities.
Ensemble visionary Bruce Shelley will not be joining either company, sadly. Stay tuned for updates on these new companies.
Below are some links to recent news articles about Ensemble Studios:
Ensemble staff to form two new studios Former employees will continue work on popular titles through new entities – GamesIndustry.Biz
Ensemble involved in Halo Wars’ future
Microsoft Game Studios “very excited” about series potential – GamesIndustry.biz
Bruce Shelley Shares His Thoughts on Ensemble Studios Shutting Down – Softpedia
