Ex-Ensemble Staff's First Game Is Called Spartan

Microsoft is publishing one of the titles developed by the ex-Ensemble employees that formed Robot Entertainment. It is known at this time that the codename used is Project S and that it is a strategy game akin to the Age of Empires franchise, something that was to be expected from these developers.

Kotaku unveiled earlier today that this project had another codename that also appears to be the current name of the game: Spartan. Despite the name, it is not Halo related and will be a PC exclusive. The developers are promising it will be a groundbreaking, revolutionary step for real-time strategy, which is something PC gamers have heard a lot of times before, but it's fair to say this team has the pedigree to pull it off.

The splash screen of the alpha testing version has also been uncovered and shows, unsurprisingly, a comic-book styled Spartan spear-man on a cliff, overlooking something that seems to be the valley of a lake. It has a more stylized look, but Kotaku reports that this game has a lot in common with the Age of Empires series.

There are also some patch notes in the image, from which one can gather that military units can stay in formation when grouped, something that is to be found in Age of Empires as well, but also that there is a crafting component and that players can engage in quests. Robot Entertainment confirms on its recently launched website it is working on a game set to be published by Microsoft Game Studios. The company was formed at the start of this year by developers that were part of Ensemble Studios, the one behind the Age of Empires series and, more recently, Halo Wars.