Support NeoGAF

[DocSeuss]

Impossible Creatures returns at last!

Seriously, I'd prefer a new Rise of Nations game or even something like MechCommander or BattleTech, but it's probably an Age of... title.

That occurred to me as well, but I think Rare does their own recruiting, and the position seems to be in the US.

I thought of Impossible Creatures, but it's at Nordic, isn't it?

Are you insane? I've been playing since AoM and Ao3 and expansions are awesome. Still play it. Granted this is all subjective, but I'll be damned if someone disses that game.

I'm not insane, I've just been playing since Age of Empires. Age 3 is a terrible game.

I visited ES before AoE3 was released. The studio wasn't that big so I can't see how it would have been a money sink compared to the cost of Rare or Lionhead.

And AoE3 sold pretty darn well too.

Interestingly, Halo Wars was codenamed Project Phoenix. I took a picture of it and posted on HG site, ES emailed me to take it down.

They put about ninety million dollars into an MMO that was canceled.

 

[LQX]

Yes lets fire Ensemble and then build a new studio from scratch to make the same shit they were already nailing.

Fucking Microsoft.

Ha, came to type the very same thing. I guess they were in the "PC is dead" phase of their incompetence.

 

[DocSeuss]

Ha, came to type the very same thing. I guess they were in the "PC is dead" phase of their incompetence.

~2008-2009, giant financial crisis, Halo Wars didn't do great, so obviously Xbox isn't going to be the future. MMOs only viable PC thing supposedly, Steam wouldn't start explosive growth until late 2009/2010. Microsoft spends more money on a Halo MMO than some of the most expensive games of all time, but ultimately pulls the plug and kills Ensemble.

It wasn't as simple as "PC is dead," it was "we've lost two billion dollars on video games, the economy is crap, PC gaming isn't doing so hot, and for whatever reason, we've spent 90 million dollars on this game with no return on our investment."

The Halo MMO is what killed Ensemble.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I'm not insane, I've just been playing since Age of Empires. Age 3 is a terrible game.

To each their own. I love AoE 3. My friends and I still get together to play 2v2's on a pretty regular basis.

 

[hooijdonk17]

Shut down Ensemble
Decide to make new AOE game
Start hiring

Idiots.

Fucking idiots.

The Halo MMO is what killed Ensemble.

I'm quite sure Ensemble didn't come up one day and propose making a Halo MMO to Microsoft execs. It was Microsoft's incompetence through and through.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

It's Viva Pinata.

Nah, it's probably Age of Empires. Would love for it to be Halo Wars 2, but that's as likely as a sequel to ODST...

 

[monome]

Ryse : Age of Empires

no way MS is making a AAA RTS game.

at best we'll get a MOBA AoE or so hybrid stuff nobody will like.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Ryse : Age of Empires

no way MS is making a AAA RTS game.

at best we'll get a MOBA AoE or so hybrid stuff nobody will like.

I don't think it's so farfetched with them showing renewed interest in series over the past year and handful of months.

 

[licktheenvelope]

Is Xbox One Mouse/Key compatible?

*checks*

Hrm... only with a mod...

 

[M°°nblade]

Instead of a new AoE game, I'd rather see the remake of AoE II.

 

[Walshicus]

Halo Wars was terrible, way to simplified and the worst of all the games produced by Ensemble Studios imo...

Proper RTS games never worked or will work on console controllers period.
(maybe the with the new Steam controller...)

This is a ridiculous opinion. Halo Wars was one of the best RTS' of the last generation. Hell, I'd argue it was *the* best RTS of the last generation.

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

I'm quite sure Ensemble didn't come up one day and propose making a Halo MMO to Microsoft execs. It was Microsoft's incompetence through and through.

Actually, you are wrong. Ensemble pitched the MMO to Microsoft.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble

Dave Pottinger: Ensemble has been wanting to make an MMO for a long time. That was in production for a long time. The Halo IP was a great IP to launch an MMO with. Microsoft... hasn't had the best track record with those.

And we worked on it for a long time--we had staffed up an almost-40 person team. And then there was some reorganization at Microsoft, and the new bosses thought it wasn't the best idea anymore. It had actually been green-lit, and then it got cancelled after that.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132312/ensemble_studios_the_last_tour.php?print=1

But the company was moving in a single direction: the Halo MMO. It started in 1998, soon after Ultima Online came out, when a designer named Ian Fischer started pitching a sci-fi MMO. He loved the genre, and felt it was underserved -- so development started on Titan.

There were many iterations of the design, and then the relationship with Bungie began, and the license was incorporated in the game, subsequently codenamed Orion.

Fischer remembers going back and forth on the finer points of the world's fiction. "Halo is in Joe Staten's head," he says, referring to the man who penned the story for the first two games in the series.

Everyone at Ensemble expected this MMO to be the new focus of the company. Work was started on a brand new facility -- a campus -- that could support the development and administration of a major massively multiplayer online game.

 

[derFeef]

Instead of a new AoE game, I'd rather see the remake of AoE II.

You mean like the one that is available on Steam?

 

[hooijdonk17]

Actually, you are wrong. Ensemble pitched the MMO to Microsoft.

http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132312/ensemble_studios_the_last_tour.php?print=1

Well. I admit to being wrong. Shamed.

 

[Hammer24]

Halo Wars 2

Spoiler

MOBA

 

[mclem]

They're finally making that AAA Reversi we've been crying out for!

 

[Ysiadmihi]

You mean like the one that is available on Steam?

A modernized port is not a remake.

 

[derFeef]

A modernized port is not a remake.

True.
A remake is, at least to me, never that exciting - spend the money on a new title, keep mechanics and expand upon them.

 

[V_Ben]

New Age Of Empires, with Brian Reynolds as the creative lead would be fascinating. He still hasn't announced his new studio...

 

[DerZuhälter]

Ryse : Age of Empires

no way MS is making a AAA RTS game.

at best we'll get a MOBA AoE or so hybrid stuff nobody will like.

I swear to god, I was just about to post the same thing pointing out that:

" lead the team for a new AAA title within an established and well-loved strategy game franchise."

the "within" doesn't necessarly mean it has to be a strategy game, just that it's taking place within the world of a strategy fanchise.

Think Command & Conquer: Renegade.