Ensemble’s Ashes: Bonfire Studios

Bonfire Studios has opened its doors in Dallas Texas today - the second company to be formed in the aftermath of Ensemble’s demise at the hands of Microsoft. Bonfire Studios is a 35 person studio currently working on an original IP to be announced in the coming months. The Bonfire team is made up entirely of former Ensemble employees fresh off of developing Halo Wars. David Rippy will head up the studio as its president and CEO.

“Ensemble had an incredible group of highly talented people and the companies coming out of it are really made up of the best of the best. Ensemble was one of the few studios with two A-teams,” said David Rippy, president and CEO of Bonfire Studios. “We are already working on an original IP that we’ll start talking about in the next few months.”

You can learn what little there it to know about the new studio by checking out www.bonfire-studios.com.

Robots to Handle AOE, Halo Wars

Earlier in the week we reported that former members of Ensemble Studios, including founder Tony Goodman, had formed a new studio called Robot Entertainment. that news has been formally announced by the company, along with some details on what its first order of business will be now that it’s all official.

The company will be helmed by Goodman, who will serve as its CEO and is comprised of 45 former Ensemble employees. The first order of business? Business as usual. Goodman’s new gig will continue to support Halo Wars and the Age of Empires franchises for Microsoft, but the company also announced that it is already hard at work on a brand new, wholly-owned original intellectual property. Fascinating.

The company will call Plano, Texas its home. We’re glad to hear that Robot Entertainment will continue to support the IP’s it helped create and foster over the years. It is is hard to imagine anyone else handling Age of Empires anyway.

Tony Goodman Forms Robot Entertainment

Tony Goodman , co-founder of Ensemble Studios, and several other former Ensemble Employees have formed a new studio called Robot Entertainment, according to a report in Gamasutra. Ensemble, prior to its closing promised that it would return under a different moniker to develop new properties and to continue supporting the last game it worked on for Microsoft - Halo Wars. We do not yet know if this is the studio that will continue to support Halo Wars or not (Ensemble had said it would form two new studios in 2009), but we’re glad to see Goodman and his crew back where they belong - free from corporate oversight.

Hopefully this will give the artists formerly known as Ensemble the freedom to create the kinds of games they want - whatever they are. The only sad part is that Robot no longer has access to the Age of Empires of Age of Mythology franchises - unless Microsoft decides to taps them to develop new games later on down the road.

Ensemble’s End A New Beginning

Ensemble Studios, makers of such hits as the Age of Empires and Age of Mythologies series, and the soon-to-be-released Halo Wars is no more, but from the ashes of that studio will arise two new studios.

According to published reports these studios will continue to support many of the popular titles it created and will be there to support Halo Wars after its release. One of those studios will be dedicated to support, while, we assume the other will be working on new properties.

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The Top 21 News Stories of 2008: 14 - 8

(Contributors: Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

We continue our countdown of the Top 21 News Stories of 2008, with #14 - #7, starting now. If you missed the first part of our countdown featuring David Chapman, James Fudge and ECA President Hal Halpin, you can check it out right here.

Next: #14 –>

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Bruce Shelley Gets AIAS Hall of Fame Nod

There are those that get awards and then there are those that actually deserve them. Ensemble Studios frontman, Bruce Shelley, is the latter. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced that Bruce Shelley will be the 12th inductee into the Academy’s Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as Trip Hawkins (Electronic Arts), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios), Yu Suzuki (Sega), Will Wright (Maxis), John Carmack (id Software), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Square Enix), Sid Meier (Firaxis Games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Richard Garriott (origin Systems), Dan/Danielle Bunten Berry (Ozark Landscape), and Michael Morhaime (Blizzard Entertainment).

Bruce Shelley is a legend in the board game and video game industry, having worked and influenced the direction of such board game companies as Iron Crown Enterprises, Simulations Publications, and the legendary board game company, Avalon Hill. In 1988 Shelley joiuned Microprose, beginning a long and successful career in PC games. After working on a variety of projects, including F-19 Stealth Fighter, Shelley worked with Sid Meier as his producer/assistant designer. Together they worked on such hits as Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action and Civilization.

Four years after Civilization, Shelley joined old friend Tony Goodman at start-up Ensemble Studios, to help create the epic franchise Age of Empires. To date, Age of Empires has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Shelley said in today’s announcement. “I believe it also honors my colleagues over the years at Microprose and especially Ensemble Studios, from whom I have learned so much. I am very grateful for the opportunities that have come my way and hope that in return I have given something back to this great industry.”

The Hall of Fame Award will be presented by Tony Goodman, founder of Ensemble Studios, at the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and will take place during the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit on Thursday, February 18, 2009 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. Congratulations to Bruce Shelley for a well deserved honor - a reward that I personally believe is long overdue.

Microsoft: We Still Own Age of Empires

File this one under DUH. Microsoft’s GamerScore Blog offers an assurance from the company that they still own the Age of Empires franchise and it is not going anywhere. What it does not tell us is who will be at the helm of this franchise when the next game in the series is revealed. We suspect it will be Big Huge Games or whatever new entity the artist formerly known as Ensemble create. Anyway, here is the post, verbatim:

As many of you have heard, Ensemble Studios will be closing after Halo Wars is complete. If you’re a PC gamer, you’ve likely played some version of Age of Empires somewhere along the line. I want to reassure you that Microsoft will still own the Age of Empires intellectual property. As a company, we’re very excited about the future potential for Age of Empires, and as a PC gamer I’m looking forward to what that future holds. Stay tuned.

Source: GamerScore Blog