Bruce Shelley Talks Ensemble Closure

[Evil Avatar]

Bruce Shelley, formerly of Ensemble Studios, has updated his blog (http://www.ensemblestudios.com/blogs/bshelley/archive/2008/09/22/ensemble-studios-closing.aspx) with a few comments on the closure of Ensemble Studios.

I have mentioned with regret the closing of several quality game studios over the past several years but I never considered that ES would join the list. Everyone at our studio was shocked, and I think remains very disappointed that this is going to happen. I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don’t fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we’re out.

A senior executive of MGS addressed the studio in early September and gave us the news. He did not go into a lot of detail about why, but basically the decision, as I understand it, was based on several major factors. First, they want to divert the headcount tied up in ES and the costs that are expected to be required to run ES for the next few years into other projects. Second, it sounded like it cost more to run ES on a per person basis than other first party studios (Rare, Lionhead, Forza, Flight Sim) putting us at a disadvantage. (Plus they avoid the expense of a new office that we were planning.) And third, games those studios are expected to deliver in the next few years are expected to be more strategic and profitable to the company than anything we would be finishing after Halo Wars.

[Adam Blue]

I was just told the leadership is starting a new studio in Plano.

[Majster Wichajster]

Not cool Microsoft.

[Vermy81]

One wonders what you have to do to keep a studio open within MGS if making successful game after successful game is not enough. All the Age of games sold millions, i would think that would be good enough to keep you employed.

[Hellstorm]

One wonders what you have to do to keep a studio open within MGS if making successful game after successful game is not enough.

I guess you have to fill one of two requirement:

1) Having been bought from Nintendo from an ungodly amount of money.

or

2) You don't make PC games and you can lose money hand over first.

So I suppose looking at the studios they do have, usually satisfy one of those two.

[biosc1]

Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do

Could very well have been that they just became too expensive to maintain. Sure it's nice to keep everyone together and create low-turnover, but maybe that meant that the amenities and salaries were a little too high. Plus, he mentions that this also saves MS money in the way of a new office they were planning.

Business-wise, probably a good decision.
PR-wise, probably not a good decision.

I wouldn't be worried about the guys in this studio. I bet a lot will be taking well deserved vacations, retiring, and/or getting lots of job offers. :)

[MosBen]

biosc1, I tend to agree. Much as it pains me to see a studio I have admired for so many years closed, Microsoft isn't so stupid as to take a wildly successful in every way studio and close it down for no good reason. It's much more likely that we're not privy to the finances involved in this decision and that it made sense to close them down from a business point of view.

It goes without saying that this is bad PR, but ultimately the number of people who will be angered by this enough for it to affect their puchasing habits is probably rather small. There will be far more people who, like me, say, "Awww, that sucks!" and feel bad about it for a little while before moving on with out lives and games.

[Roc Ingersol]

Nasty rumor is that Ensemble types got frustrated at Microsoft continually denying their original IP projects after they felt they'd proven themselves with Age success and carried water with the Star Wars and Halo RTS shlock.

So they decided to leave.

Microsoft figured that if Ensemble was going to be gutted, poached and left demoralized - they can get cheaper studios to paste various franchises into the Age of Empires model. So they decided to close the thing and act like they moved first.

Granted, that's all he-said, she-said at the moment; and it doesn't really matter, since the end result is the same to us gamers. (Ensemble dead for no good reason, parts of it to live on elsewhere)

But it does make a bit more sense than Microsoft just waking up one day and deciding that the profit Ensemble was pulling down wasn't ridiculous enough to cover those 'high operating costs'. Particularly when they have absolutely no problem lugging around other expensive money-pit studios.

[TexasMouse]

Bruce definitely seems to indicate that it's because they were too expensive. And yep, this is likely because they have low-turnover, experienced veterans working there. And it shows, because they make high quality products!

What's most distressing about this to me (beyond the obvious worries for anyone who will lose their job at Ensemble) is this:

I worry greatly about the health of our industry whenever I hear an argument for getting rid of expensive veterans. It suggests that top publishers are unwilling to pay for studios unless they are populated mostly with 50-60k rookies. This leads to a sort of fast-food resturant model, which forces us to hire mostly hungry kids, and ensures high-turnover.

Great teams are seldom build from a collection of rookies who just got together. Truly great teams typically require a few projects together to gel. The maturity and experience that having been several battles together gives a team is hard to overstate.

We don't want a business in which our ruthless demand for low-overhead forces developers to 'race towards the bottom' when it comes to salaries. This forces top quality, senior people to move to other industries where they can be paid what their experience is worth.

Now, it's entirely likely that there is more to the story here than Bruce lets on. Rumors of bad blood between Ensemble and MSFT have been around for years. Let's hope this is the case.

As gamers, we don't want our developers to price themselves out of the market right around the time they are becoming mature enough to really shine. As developers, we do not want to get caught in fast-food model of production, where we are forced to keep salaries low by hiring only rookies.

-tf

[ÜberJumper]

I feel like I freaking missed a memo here... when was this announced?

/in hindsight, this explains why their Community Manager just ended up at Relic!

Edit: ahhh here's when... http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63575

[Kelegacy]

Gobble Gobble.

[jeffbax]

Business-wise, probably a good decision.
PR-wise, probably not a good decision.

I fail to see how closing a consistently profitable developer is a good decision, even if the games aren't as big a hits as say Halo.

[CrysDark]

One wonders what you have to do to keep a studio open within MGS if making successful game after successful game is not enough. All the Age of games sold millions, i would think that would be good enough to keep you employed.


Small dedicated team of passionate developers who work for free. Outsource your code jockeys to India. Then you can stay open under MS.

Does anyone notice a rapid disconnect from MGS and the game developing public, it's like they don't even care anymore.

[biosc1]

Salary is an issue that I hear about the gaming industry. Out of school, I got an offer from the local "big" game company, but I knew enough people through my brother that have worked there and ended up getting burned out. Instead, I went to look at other local developers (there are a bunch where I live) and the average starting salary and upper end salary is not very great when you compare it to other specialized software developers.

I ended up shying away from the "glamour" of entertainment software and ended up working for an "app" developer and have been happily employed for the last 3 years. Salary comparison-wise, I'm better off. What I've noticed over the last few years is that the other hires have mostly been people coming from the gaming industry. They are talented folk who want to be rewarded for what they contribute.

Of course, work isn't something that should be "money-based" and I think a lot of the "rookies" mentioned above are brilliant individuals who could probably easily put my abilities to shame.

[Exodus]

When I read this something inside me kinda started to hurt. Call me emo. Blame the fact that I'm watching six feet under. But god fucking damn this is a shame.

[Kelegacy]

When I read this something inside me kinda started to hurt. Call me emo. Blame the fact that I'm watching six feet under. But god fucking damn this is a shame.

Six Feet Under rocks. If you haven't already, make sure you watch it ALL the way through, seasons 1 - 5 beginning to end. It resonates.

[Orz]

From a projected cash flow perspective, it works like this. Ensemble was made up of a staff of excellent game producers. They produced excellent games. However, they produced real time strategy games, primarily on the PC.

Ergo, some financial accountant probably put forth a proposal that if these excellent game creators could apply their skills to other projects that will generate more revenue (as in, first-person shooter projects J through Z), then it would be more cost-effective to break up the studio and disperse the talent amongst these projects.

As an accountant by trade, I find a lot wanting in this sort of analysis. It discounts the creative environment contained within Ensemble, and assumes that the employees will continue to produce the same caliber of work in separate groups. If they wanted to alter the type of game expected by these employees, they should have given them the opportunity to produce this type of game as a single studio.

As a gamer, I have to say that accounting concerns should never entirely dictate what gets made. As an Ensemble fan, I'm pissed.

[Jimmay]

this.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/Mattrick/default.aspx

the end.,

[SalaciousPuck]

I can understand why Microsoft would want to abandon this unit (PC RTS specialists), since it doesn't really support their strategic goals (OS/Office/Server/etc dominance). What i don't get is why they just 'close' it. Wouldn't some publisher have been interested in buying them, even if it was for cheap?

Same goes with FASA Studios.....they pushed Shadowrun out the door (clearly before it was finished...and I'm a huge fan of the game...smartest FPS in a long time) and just shut them down.

[blackzc]

I knew i should have bought AOE2 at wall mart for 10$ instead of DLing it off torrents. Fuck i feel bad now. I love AOE2.