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Ensemble founder: Bungie was 'never up' for Halo Wars
Bungie wasn't keen on the idea of Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios founder Tony Goodman has told GamesIndustry.biz. Goodman noted that the game that became Halo Wars originally had nothing to do with Halo at all, but Microsoft felt that a strategy game would have a better chance of succeeding on its console with the Halo branding. The shift put the game "back about a year in development, and I think it never quite turned out the same," he said. Microsoft had assumed, according to Goodman, that the studio could simply "paint over" what it had already created with Halo characters, vehicles and environments.Furthermore, Goodman added that the entire project never sat well with Bungie, the studio that created Halo in the first place. "Another problem was that Bungie was never up for it," he said, recalling that the studio considered Halo Wars a "whoring out" of its franchise.Halo Wars became the last game that Ensemble Studios would ever produce, with the developer's former staff offering different accounts as to why it went under. The game went on to break a million in sales, and the staff went on to form several new studios, including Goodman's Robot Entertainment, which took stewardship of Halo Wars and went on to create both Hero Academy and Orcs Must Die. Goodman recently left Robot to form new mobile studio PeopleFun.
Age of Empires creator starts another studio, this time for mobile
Tony Goodman, creator of Age of Empires and founder of Ensemble Studios, has started a new studio focused on mobile and "other emerging platforms," named PeopleFun. We assume that's opposed to those other types of fun, "BearFun" and "HamburgerFun." Goodman previously founded Orcs Must Die and Hero Academy developer Robot Entertainment.PeopleFun is based in the Dallas area and includes the talents of Angelo Laudon, lead programmer on the Age of Empires engine, and John Boog-Scott, co-founder with Goodman of Ensemble Corporation and Studios. PeopleFun's first title is almost ready for beta and "is a departure from the games we made at Ensemble and Robot in terms of scope and genre," Goodman says.
Ensemble Studios founder creates Robot Entertainment
It's been just under two weeks since Age of Empires and Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios closed its doors and already one of the two previously announced development studios springing from its demise is forming like Voltron -- appropriately, they've named the new studio Robot Entertainment. Tony Goodman, founder of Ensemble Studios way back in January of 1996, appears to be heading up the studio, whose website promises "big ideas" and ... well ... not much else. Will Robot Entertainment be the studio supporting development of the promised Halo Wars dlc? That remains to be seen but, given co-founder Bruce Shelley's words last month in his final blog post on the community site (which is now shut down), there's roughly a 50/50 chance: "There are at least two new studios being formed by ES [Ensemble Studios] employees and I expect both to do very well." We've put in word to Robot Entertainment for comment and will update this post accordingly as news comes in.[Via Gamasutra] [image]
Closing Time: Ensemble's unannounced titles revealed
Cue the Semisonic, folks. After nearly 15 years, Dallas-based strategy developer Ensemble Studios has closed its doors for good. While its library of classic releases are well known to gamers worldwide, a host of concept images for unannounced games were spotted during a recent studio tour by Gamasutra. Among the titles left to collect dust with so many cardboard boxes are a fantasy-adventure RPG called Sorcerer, a platformer called Bam and a game described as "Diablo in space," called Nova. Also revealed in the tour was a concept for a game named Phoenix, which would eventually become the upcoming RTS Halo Wars. Fun fact: Phoenix is a regularly used codename by Bungie Studios according to its official podcast, but Ensemble's use of the name was purely coincidental. It isn't completely bad news for some of Ensemble's former staff, as many will help establish a new studio headed by Ensemble co-founder Tony Goodman. As big fans of the Age of Empires series, we here at Joystiq wish everyone leaving Ensemble Studios the very best of luck and continued success with future projects. [Via BigDownload]
