Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Chapter 5: Ensemble Studios

The fifth chapter of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels covers the unfortunate end of a studio beloved by many an RTS player, Ensemble Studios. Though the primary focus of the chapter is on their involvement with Halo Wars and Microsoft, Ensemble was a storied development studio before then, primarily as the developer of the Age of Empires series of games. The chapter itself details the process of reworking Ensemble’s then latest project, a new IP, into a spinoff of the Halo series, and the subsequent decision to close the studio upon the conclusion of the game’s development.

The decision did make sense, however. Despite the skill of the developers involved, the RTS genre was a dying breed by the time Halo Wars came into being, and Microsoft’s persistence on having the game be console exclusive genre was ill-advised. RTS is a genre where keyboard and mouse are nigh essential; as such, most games of its type are oriented towards PC play. Placing the game on console exclusively disconnected the game from the genre’s primary audience, which consisted of mostly PC players. Combined with generally waning interest in RTS games, the game only had the title on the box and the company’s reputation to sell itself with, and to their credit, they pulled it off to a degree: Halo Wars managed to sell one million units by the end of 2009. However, these numbers were far from what Microsoft needed from one of its flagship franchises. Halo 3, for instance, sold over five times what Halo Wars did in their respective first weeks, and in total, Halo 3 sold fourteen times as many units as Halo Wars, capping out at approximately fourteen and a half million units. Additionally, Ensemble had been pushing an extreme amount of resources into a Halo MMORPG, which was cancelled just before the announcement of the studio’s closure; the loss of resources must have been a blow, as well. The choice to close Ensemble, then, was clearly a financial one. Maintaining a studio specialized in the creation of a dying genre, in a company whose primary platform for games at the time was a poor fit for the genre’s core gameplay elements, did not seem conducive to positive cashflow.

The most unfortunate part of the situation, however, was the possibility of avoiding it. Had the game been greenlit for distribution on PCs, even digitally via the then-novel online store Steam, which was eagerly signing publishers to sell their games on the platform at the time, sales may have been much better. Additionally, paying more attention to Ensemble’s own big franchises, particularly Age of Empires, may have allowed Ensemble to perform better in terms of profits. For instance, in 2005, Age of Empires III became the eighth best selling PC game of that year, and sold two million units by the end of 2007. Following this trend and continuing to innovate in their most comfortable niche might have sweetened the deal for Microsoft. The nature of players’ preferences, however, is not something that can be controlled. RTS, especially on console, is simply not a recipe for record-breaking sales: something the Halo franchise was known for by that point. In the eyes of Microsoft, if Halo can’t make an RTS sell on consoles, nothing can.

The studio shutdown must have affected the developers within, as well. I imagine there would have been a sort of melancholy throughout the studio then, knowing the game would be their final foray together. Personally, I’d be trying to get affairs with my coworkers in order and line up a new position as soon as possible, but I would see the game through, if only to keep collecting salary. In whatever case, however, it would no doubt be an unfortunate situation to be in.

Personally, I miss Ensemble Studios. I believe they could have gone on to create much greater things had Microsoft utilized them differently, but the turmoil of the early days of Xbox cut its life short. Ultimately, an unceremonious end to a group that helped shape the world of modern strategy and PC gaming.