Last Days for Ensemble Studios: An Interview with Halo Wars' Creators

11/17/2008 9:27 PM | 5 Comments | Page 1 of 4

It's end of days for Ensemble Studios. The developer most famous for its Age of Empires real-time strategy series on the PC is in its last few months of wrapping up Halo Wars. Normally, that's good news for both gamers and the people working on the game -- except the finish line here will probably see more tears than sighs of relief.

The studio is shutting down after Halo Wars ships this February for the Xbox 360. And while discussing that near future nearly makes their eyes well up and voices crack, they're also gung-ho about going out with a bang that can only be matched by a certain galaxy-annihilating alien artifact. See what Lead Writer Graeme Devine and Lead Designer Dave Pottinger have to say about their near-finished project, the team's last few months together, and Microsoft's decision to close their shop.

Crispy Gamer: What's it like for the development team knowing there are only two more months left -- that after Halo Wars, there's no more Ensemble Studios?

Graeme Devine: That news was a shock for the whole team. I've spent four and a half years on this game -- it's a big part of my life. We have a great love of what we've made. With the team, it's become a sort of "Let's make this. Let's prove to Microsoft that they made a mistake." I think from Microsoft's perspective, a lot of them were shocked, too.

It's an interesting time. Although we're closing a chapter, we're closing it well. The last thing we want is for people to just mail it in just to finish a game.

Crispy Gamer: So you're really not seeing any of that? Anyone just mailing it in?

Devine: Certainly not. If anything, people have doubled their efforts.

Dave Pottinger: Out of 105 full-time people when the news hit, we lost three. We feared losing 30 to 40 people right away. Yeah, that still hurt -- everyone at Ensemble is important. But it's a testament to the strength of Ensemble, to how much people care about each other. Certainly the Microsoft severance package is nice, and that helps incentivize people. But the stronger motivation is to send out Ensemble in the right way.

I've worked at Ensemble for 15 years. I disagree personally with Microsoft's choice that they can make more money doing something else with headcount and stuff like that, but it's their choice to make. After we got that news, we looked at ways to keep as many people together as possible, and that's where our new studio came from. That studio will be supporting Halo Wars going forward. The customer trusts the game will be supported and not just be shoveled out there. It also helps the people working on the game to know that it won't just be shoveled out there to go away and die.

It's been impressive to see everyone stick it out and work really hard. It's not been easy. Nobody's too happy with Microsoft right now [laughs], but it is what it is. It's their right. It sucks; there's no two ways about it. We're working our asses off, we're crunching a lot, and as soon as the game's done, we're out of a job.