The Age of Empires creators will soon be out of a job

Jan 30, 2009 07:28 GMT  ·  By

Strategy games are very popular these days, and once a company decides to create one, it must stand by it and ensure that players will have a great long-term experience. Such was the case with Ensemble Studios, responsible for the very successful Age of Empires franchise, which took players through a lot of great historical battles in its various iterations.

But sadly, the Microsoft-owned studio will soon be shut down due to the fact that the series developed there weren't very profitable for the company and there was no other potential for the team there. As such, the latest project, Halo Wars, will be the last one to bear the Ensemble logo on the box.

In the last blog post made on the studio's website, written by one of the top men in the company, Bruce Shelley, he shares with us his thoughts and feelings as regards the recent events that happened in the headquarters of the company. He goes on saying that the team has had its last part in order to celebrate the completion of the game, and the end of the studio.

“My expectation is that this is the final ES blog that I will write. I have enjoyed pulling it together for the past several years and sharing with you what I could about the inside workings of a game studio. It was a pleasure and a privilege to showcase the work and fun side of our group. On behalf of everyone at ES, past and present, thanks for your support over the years. Your feedback on our games made the next version better. Buying legitimate copies made it possible for us to keep making them. Thanks also to those who wrote us to express regrets about the end of our studio and even the end of this blog.”

Shelley does mention that various employees will start new studios and that we will see future strategy titles in the spirit of Age of Empires, even though they won't have the Ensemble logo on them. “There are at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well. 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.”

All in all, this is a very sad moment for the gaming industry, as one of the most popular developers is forced to close down. Hopefully, we will get to see new titles from the members of the studio in the future, but until then, let's play some Age of Empires so as to remember the good times we spent with the creations of Ensemble.