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posts about #ensemblestudios more →
Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
Ensemble Says Goodbye With Halo Wars Concept Art
Halo Wars Review: A Fistful of Spartans
Bonfire Rises From The Ashes Of Ensemble
Master Chief Is The Batman Of The Future
Halo Wars MEGA Bloks Coming
The History Of The Halo MMO, And Ensemble's Other Cancelled Projects
Microsoft Talks Future of Halo Wars And Ensemble Studios
Bruce Shelly And Ensemble Studios Say "Goodbye and Thanks"

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Mech_Master
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
Halo isn't as milked as everyone seems to make it out to be. 5 games (Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST, and Halo Wars) within a 9 year period. That's nearly a game ever 2 years, which doesn't seem very bad in my eyes.

Just don't let M$ know that because even though I don't think Halo is completely milked yet, if they got that idea you know they'd continue to do so even more.

I see nothing wrong with expanding the universe though. The books are effing great, and from what I understand so are the comics and graphic novels. The anime looks interesting as well. So it's not like the stuff Microsoft is putting out is absolute trash *cough mario franchise*
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Hyperpower!
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
This horse isn't just dead, it's been cut up into strips, dehydrated, packed and sold as horse jerky, eaten by 13 year old boys with terrible acne and potty mouths, digested, pooped out and flushed (hopefully) to a sewage processing plant.

Unless the liberals got to the toilets first, and we're now all drinking it in our water.
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thejakeman has died of dysentry
09/20/09

@Hyperpower!: this didn't make any sense but I liked it anyway.
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Daxtinator
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
No please just stop it with Halo we need new IPs
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Me_rock
09/20/09

@Daxtinator: My thoughts exactly. They really need to stop with Halo.
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pandafresh
09/20/09

@Me_rock: it won't be enough till we get Halo Football, combining the two of the best selling franchises, Halo and Madden. the day the game releases, the economy will crash since no one will show up for work, and humanity will eventually lose over 85% of its population due to deaths from exhaustion.
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Ratfuzz
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
As much as I love the Halo universe, I would not want this to happen anyway. There's no way you could make an individual character go off alone in this game. The game is two armies against each others, not a bunch of mercenaries picking sides.
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TOWER_JUNKIE
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
Judging from this and previously released concept art from Ensemble's cancelled Halo MMO, I think the game would have taken place in either the Forerunner era (100,000 years before the events of the games) or a while after the Halo 3, with humanity reclaiming the Forerunner civilization. Either of those would make interesting storylines, but I have not, do not and will never want a Halo MMO, thankyouverymuch.
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
It probably went kaput because how do you turn Halo into an MMO? Would it have been an RPG or something along the lines of MAG?

Sorry if I'm not informed on what this Halo project was supposed to be.
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mfwahwah
09/20/09

@starscar.exe: Halo could work well as an... oh idk... MMOFPS?
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@mfwahwah: Which is what MAG is.
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Kaneda
09/20/09

@starscar.exe: Do you guys think MAG will be any good? I heard from a few guys on my PSN list who are in the Beta that's it's really good. I don't know though. I can't wait to see how it goes when it comes out. At first I thought KZ2 would not be all that good, but now I almost have Platinum on it even if it's the first FPS I seriously played with a controller.
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PkChris
09/20/09

@starscar.exe: MAG is a standard online shooter that supports a huge number of players. It's not a constantly happening battle that you join when you play it.
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PhoenixDog
09/20/09

@starscar.exe:
You think MAG is an MMOFPS? Not even close my friend...Not even close.
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mfwahwah
09/20/09

@starscar.exe: MAG is not quite an MMOFPS.

Huxley would have been a better example, but I'm sure there are some that I'm not aware of, as FPS isn't really my cup of tea.
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ithyphallus, bonks morrigan
09/20/09

@starscar.exe: MAG is far from an MMO
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@mfwahwah: You're right. I couldn't really think of an MMOFPS. Just figured MAG was one because it technically is an MMO.

I can't really think of many (if any) MMOFPS games out there...
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@Kaneda: I'm in the Beta right now and there's some bugs that need to be worked out, but that's why we're there. It's pretty good thus far, especially when you go into the 128 vs. 128 battles. Which is why I felt MAG was like an MMO. *Hint: Massively Multiplayer Online for those who think I'm talking WoW or some shit*
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@PhoenixDog: Thanks, Capt. Obvious.
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@ithyphallus, lazy beareaucrat: That's what the guy above you just said, but thanks for trying.
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starscar.exe
09/20/09

@PkChris: Most MMO games do not necessarily have to be constant to be considered as such.
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2c-b
09/21/09

@starscar.exe: Probably the best example of an MMOFPS is "Planetside". The game was never too popular, unfortunately. The genre has a lot of potential and it would be nice to see some devs experimenting with it.
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excel_excel
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
Universe's are overrated! Now Galaxys on the other hand, I mean all things awesome have Galaxy in the title!
Super Mario Galaxy, Mars Galaxies....Star Wars Galaxies....ok yeah Universe is better
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Mike Newlad
09/20/09

@excel_excel: Marvel Universe, DC Universe, Buffyverse - there's just no competing with that.
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Owen Good
09/20/09

@excel_excel: Miss Universe uncrosses her legs at you.
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excel_excel
09/20/09

@Owen Good: Ohhh yeah!
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(Zombie) Jölan
09/20/09

In reply to Scrapped Halo MMO's title: 'Halo Universe'?
least it isn't World of Halo, or Halo Galaxies
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tim rogers
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
plunkett, i reckon i wouldn't be surprised if the creative assembly shut down next.

viking nearly universally disappointed people (including me, and i'm the obesest creative assembly fanbastard around), and no one in the "videogame journalism industry" seemed to actually "get" spartan (i think it's the 24th-best game of all-time :()

so it goes like this: they made a brilliant, genre-revising action game that "professional" "critics" disliked because it wasn't exactly like other games in the genre; for their followup action game, they put their testicles back in the proverbial suitcase and tried to make a game that "people" would "like". they kind of failed. now their back is against the wall, and they're making RTSes again.

their parents at sega have been kicking ass lately, though i reckon that won't go on forever. sooner or later, it's gonna come time to amputate anything that isn't huge. and that's when . . . ;'''''(

(that's winking crying face)

i was a big ensemble fanjerk as well.

man, AoE2 was one of the hottest games ever, bro.

maybe like, 32 or 33, if i were making a top-100 list.
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Chalkdust
03/11/09

@tim rogers: CA is still putting out games that sell though, Ensemble has had games either being rejected or cancelled (Halo MMO), their last game was obviously Halo Wars. I certainly hope CA's bottom line is healthy but who knows.

I own Spartan, liked it a ton but it wasn't so groundbreaking, seems like many people never knew about it. I hope they try a similar game again. Maybe something like Spartan, or a game allowing you to just be a soldier/general in a traditional Total War game. A smaller focus from the PC games might work on consoles..

Anyway, I hope you're wrong on CA closing anytime soon. : /
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KillerBee
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
Age of Empires 3 was lame in every way. Setting, gameplay and story were all lacking. Age of Mythology was the crown gem, but that was the last decent thing they made and that was a good 7 years ago. Saying they were a victim of their own success is a egotistical. They were a victim of not meeting expectations, making average, boring games the last 7 years and of course doing a Halo game which will never live up to expectations is what did them in.

I hate to see developers fold, but saying that you were shuttered because you were too good is stupid. You were shuttered, whether you like it or not, because you weren't meeting owner's expectations.
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Stream Of Consciousness
03/11/09

@KillerBee: I know it is by no means a deep RTS....but I am loving "Halo Wars". It works very well for the 360 with some minor issues like having no hotkeys and such. I cannot argue your point, but as far as a console goes this game is very accessible and has made me a bigger fan of RTS games. You should be happy about that, I'm sure it will help to pull over crossover gamers a bit to that genre.

But yeah, I think it is egotistical to say they were victims of their own success after years of mediocre games.
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KillerBee
03/11/09

@Stream Of Consciousness: Halo Wars isn't a bad game, but it is lacking in so many ways.

I have maybe 12 hours in the game and I am already on the last mission. With several skirmish and online games under my belt included in that 12 hours, I am left wanting so much more out of the game.

Like you mentioned, it isn't "we are a victim of our own success" great.
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QuennaKolkata
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
micro soft and sony want pc gaming dead, that is the truth

[ve3d.ign.com]
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-MasterDex-
03/11/09

@QuennaKolkata: Neiher of those links prove you statement. Complete and utter fail.
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Werrick
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
In order for a gaming house to be "too successful" doesn't that mean that they should have actually made some decent games?
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-MasterDex-
03/11/09

@Werrick: You mean like every Age of Empires game ever released?

Take you trolling elsewhere.
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AdamW
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
Can somebody please explain to me why a sentence like this occurs: "Ensemble WERE, however, recently shut down."

Why in the world is it "were"? When referring to a company, aren't you talking about the singular unified entity? Not the individual people within said company?

It seems right for it to be "Ensemble WAS, however, recently shut down", no? I'm just going off what sounds right, I'm sure it's grammatically correct the way it is. However, my (rather half-hearted) research bore no fruit.
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ThursdayNext
03/11/09

@AdamW: It's a grammatical difference between US and PAL territories. US tend to refer to a company as a single entity while the PAL folk tend to refer to companies as a group. There's no right or wrong way really. Given that Luke is (I beleive) a PAL person it stands to reason that he would pluralise.

I like to think of companies as trousers or glasses. We know that they are one item, but we refer to them as a plural.

I shall now await all the English people telling me that they say a company is singular and all the Americans telling me that they use the plural form.
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-MasterDex-
03/11/09

@ThursdayNext: I'm not sure it's a difference between different regions, I think it's more of a personal thing. I often refer to companies using 'is', 'was', etc but I often use 'are', 'were', etc too.

On a final note, I find it strange that you'd use PAL territories to refer to the majority of the world but used US rather than NTSC territories to refer to the other.
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ThursdayNext
03/11/09

@-MasterDex-: I was using PAL instead of "The English speaking world outside of the US" as PAL is shorter and, pretty much, gets the point across. You're right though, it was innaccurate. Luckily AdamW has a good head on his shoulders and caught my drift.
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Alex Winton
03/11/09

@ThursdayNext:

PAL is a TV format, not a territory... It's... well, -phenomenally- wrong to refer to a group of people as 'PAL'. It would have been easier and a lot more accurate to just say 'UK'.
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Bichatse
03/11/09

@Alex Winton: Well, except for the part where Luke was - as far as I recall - Australian. Which is almost as far as you can get from the UK, geographically speaking, and still speak English. ;-)

The simple answer is that the US doesn't speak "English", it speaks "American English". It's got different grammar rules, so it's a different dialect. :P

(And yes, if you wrote "Ensemble was shut down" in English you'd suck at grammar.)
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WhatTheFrag
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
Yeah I've to agree with that last statement. It's just MS seems to be moving away from PC gaming to console-oriented gaming. RTSes though released for consoles will still not push as much as a PC AAA RTS title (they seem to have legs as they end up being sold at steady rates months after the release), simply because the people who play it prefer playing on the PC over a console [and possibly are a bit tribal about that].

Though to be fair, it would be interesting to see what happens say if Relic/CA make something decent for the consoles. Like say if Relic made a Homeworld game on more than just the PC.
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-MasterDex-
03/11/09

@WhatTheFrag: A commenter here came up with a great idea in another thread a while back but it was overlooked.

The idea was to release a special controller, like you have for Guitar Hero, that would accommodate and allow for a more complex RTS on consoles.

I can definitly see it working well and with the right studio and the right game, it could become a huge franchise.
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stoneagedan
03/11/09

@-MasterDex-:
A special controller? Like a mouse?

Way back in the day I made a comment that if MS didn't want to add mouse compatibility to the 360, but still wanted to release RTS games, they could swap the right analogue stick for a trackball. I have a friend who palys all RTS with a trackball anyway, and it's not really that different from a mouse. They could integrate that into a 360 controller body shape easily (but obviously the insides would need some hefty revision).
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-MasterDex-
03/11/09

@stoneagedan: Not even a mouse but a keyboard-like controller that would say have 10 buttons for micro-managment and special buttons for attack orders, etc, maybe add in a touchpad for unit selection.

It could work. All we need now is a developer that agrees.
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BubbleF**kingBuddy
03/11/09

In reply to Ensemble: We Were A Victim Of Our Own Success
Wolololoooooo!

Will any other devs pick up AoE?
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