Microsoft made a mistake closing Ensemble

Graeme Devine, head of Ensemble studio’s, has been chatting to D-Pad magazine about Halo Wars and the imminent closure of Ensemble studio’s.

It was nice to see the passion coming through from Graeme when he mentions

““I’ve been working on Halo Wars for over four years, so I’m not about to walk away from a game I’ve spent four years of my life with. It’d be very easy for us to just finish a game, mail it in and sell that but we are not really in it for that. It’s our proud shout to Microsoft, and the reason why their mistake is so obvious.”

And I have to agree with him there, I think Microsoft made a big mistake and I think it’s pretty obvious.

However I am not sure I see it the same as Graeme, I think Microsoft has made a mistake by dooming the studio before the game is released and at the same time they have doomed the game itself. Obviously the game is going to be terrible otherwise why would Microsoft close the studio mid production?

But then again why are they even finishing it if the game is so bad that it warranted closure? The thing is I don’t expect the game to be awful, I don’t expect it to be a number 1 smash hit but all in all it looks okay.

So why did Microsoft rush the gun and commit marketing Hara-Kiri?

Has Microsoft used Ensemble as an example to their other studio’s who get out of line or has it been purely a logistical issue with Ensemble?

I don’t think we will ever know the full truth behind Ensemble’s closure but I wish Graeme all the best in proving Microsoft wrong on this one, let’s hope Halo Wars is absolutely awesome.

Last Updated: November 18, 2008