Review: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels- Chapter 5

Hello again! For this week’s review, I am doing chapter 5 of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. I have really enjoyed what I’ve read so far, and I love the insight that each developer has been able to give about the creation of their game. Chapter 5 covers Halo Wars and the unfortunate end to Ensemble Studios Ensemble Studios had been known for the creation of several real time strategy games Halo Wars would end up being their last. They wanted to break free from the Types of games that they had been known for, and while this technically was a real time strategy, they we’re making a console game, which had been something the industry considered to be impossible. Sometime during the production of the game, they learned that their studio would be shutting down. While several members would go on to form their own companies, it really was the end of an era.

I wish I could say I knew what led to them shutting down. I don’t know the financial situation at their parent company, and Ensemble Studios was not going bankrupt themselves, but I imagine the issue had to be a mix of factors. As Microsoft, their parent company, were able to keep the studio running along with a bunch of severance packages for everyone who stayed until the project was finished, I think it had to do something with their performance. There might have been some sort of expectation about how they were dividing up resources that they were failing to hit, but there are mixed opinions on the validity to that statement. Regardless, every issue I see could have been solved with better communication. Microsoft didn’t usually give Ensemble Studios the chance to do anything other than real time strategy, and Ensemble- as far as I’m aware- didn’t fully express their desire to be more than just the RTS company.

Now, when they learned that their studio would be shutting down, only three people left. The rest stayed to work on the project. Now, Ensemble was a small studio, so the numbers are not as extreme, but it is still quite a few who stayed. This industry is known for having people who only stay for one game. So I expect that when I get into the industry I will be picked up for a lot of one time projects and then left waiting for work. However, this studio was stable period the studio had been more like a family than a company that quickly cycled through people.

So for me, if I learned that I was going to be unemployed when I was done with a project, if the alternative was to be unemployed for the same amount of time, I would rather have whatever is left of the job than to be jobless. However, if the alternative was to have a stable job that wouldn’t kick me out, I would rather pick the stable job and not work on the project. I respect the decisions of both the people who left the company when they learned that they would be jobless as well as the people who stayed. I’m sure the benefits that they were offered helped affect a lot of people in their decision to stay.

Thank you for reading. If anyone from ensemble is reading this, I really hope you are doing better with a stable job that you enjoy. As for my regular viewers, this might be the last time I review this book. However, I highly recommend you check it out. There are so many amazing chapters to this book and there is no reason I should spoil what comes next! I hope you’ll have as much fun reading it as I did.