Page 2 of 3

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:04 am
by StrokeyBlofeld
[quote=""I__CHAOS__I""]
After the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.
I don't think there will be any problems, it just won't be ES anymore

Believe![/quote]


Absolutely. Just because ES are closing, it does not mean that AOE3 will not be supported any more. I don't think BHG would have got involved with TAD if they had the slightest thought that ES would just shut up shop and move on under a new company.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:02 pm
by Soccerman771
Seems to me that I think the servers would be up and going but there will be no enforcement of people cheating and patches to update the game for balance. The game will still be fun though.

Is there anything to do about a game server like a lan server? How much do those things cost to support?

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:45 pm
by Aravinthan
THIS IS BALLS!!! I played aoe from its first release, i love this game, love this clan...... but there is a slight hope that eso will be still up and running. As they said Microsoft will still produce games:
We're particularly excited about the titles we have in the pipeline and continue to evaluate additional opportunities to bring incredible games to life with the industry's best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today
And plus Es will not be destroyed, just renamed....
But maybe we should write a petition or something?
I just saw... the rated sigs dont work...... a sign?

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:06 pm
by RascalJones
Bruce Shelley's next blog post should be interesting to say the least.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:45 pm
by cleeduz
I really hope someone keeps ESO running. I have to fill my AOE addiction, and singleplayer just doesn't do it for me anymore... 8O

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:41 pm
by cleeduz
I found this on the Heaven forum and seems to make sense to me. Hopefully MS will keep ESO alive.
"isn't ESO supported by ES? Why wouldn't it go down too?"

Because Microsoft now owns AOE3 and ESO not Ensemble.
Microsoft cannot shut ESO down just like that.

If you take a look at the back of your AOE3 box you will see that they are mentioning “Online Multiplayer Mode” as a feature.
So Microsoft cannot continue to sell AOE3 in stores without supporting “Online Multiplayer Mode”
Hopefully this means ESO will be up & running for awhile. We're probably out of luck as far as new patches and better balancing goes, but at least it's something... for now :?

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:55 pm
by 36drew
What I would give for one more patch. I would be happy if even Agesanc could patch.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:07 pm
by joe4holly
[quote=""36drew""]What I would give for one more patch. I would be happy if even Agesanc could patch.[/quote]

even us would make an impacted if we made a patch .

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:40 pm
by StrokeyBlofeld
[quote=""cleeduz""]I found this on the Heaven forum and seems to make sense to me. Hopefully MS will keep ESO alive.
"isn't ESO supported by ES? Why wouldn't it go down too?"

Because Microsoft now owns AOE3 and ESO not Ensemble.
Microsoft cannot shut ESO down just like that.

If you take a look at the back of your AOE3 box you will see that they are mentioning “Online Multiplayer Mode” as a feature.
So Microsoft cannot continue to sell AOE3 in stores without supporting “Online Multiplayer Mode”
Hopefully this means ESO will be up & running for awhile. We're probably out of luck as far as new patches and better balancing goes, but at least it's something... for now :?[/quote]


There's always someone who reads the large print but not the small, yes it says on the box "online multiplayer mode", it doesn't say it has to provide a server, online multiplayer is possible via LAN. Also, they quote in the EULA: "Microsoft retains the right to decline service to any user who violates the ESO Terms of Use, or to discontinue ESO at any time without notice and without obligation to any user."

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:52 pm
by Kaiser_von_Nuben
I've been perusing various forums about the "imminent end" of ESO. It looks like there might be some reason to hope that this won't happen, based on an article that said som Ensemble people will be shifted over to a different company to provide support for Halo Wars and "some other projects," which presumably means AOE 3. Whether or not we'll get a patch is a different question, but hopefully we won't be barred from playing multiplayer at all. Personally, if it came down to playing without a patch versus not playing multiplayer at all, I would take the "no-patch" option hands-down. So we'll just have to avoid Japan... I can live with that :-P

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:39 pm
by djdan
Yeah they aint shutting up shop completely imo, they said transferring to new name, maybe microsoft will sell ther right to AOE3 to BHG, which would be good for us since BHG have always been better at patching, and their servers arent terrible!
think there are still too many people playing the game for them to shut down ESO, i reckon there would be a good 10,000 complaints and people signing petitions to keep it open if they said shut down.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:49 pm
by Kaiser_von_Nuben
[quote=""djdan""]Yeah they aint shutting up shop completely imo, they said transferring to new name, maybe microsoft will sell ther right to AOE3 to BHG, which would be good for us since BHG have always been better at patching, and their servers arent terrible!
think there are still too many people playing the game for them to shut down ESO, i reckon there would be a good 10,000 complaints and people signing petitions to keep it open if they said shut down.[/quote]

I think you're right about that, Dan. But I don't think Microsoft would care two cents whether 10,000 AOE players complain. All they see is that Ensemble ain't bringing in the revenue, and they're yanking them for financial reasons. And when a big corporation yanks, they don't care who says what when the numbers don't add up to what they want.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:41 pm
by djdan
Well I reckon if they built up in numbers I reckon something would be done, because after all, people buy products from the same when they are satisfied, and I think all the proper AOE3 players are happy are content with the game and would therefore buy other things off MS, I think a big reason why MS may have liquidated ES may b the fact that the consumers arent realising that it is an MS product, until something goes wrong that is, they see it as Ensemble Studios not realising the fact that Ensemble is owned by MS, untill that is when a problem occurs and ES just point the finger at MS.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:51 am
by Shizle
Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily conclude that AOE is going to die.

Re: ES shutting down?

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 2:38 am
by kingchrisII
joe thats a half decent plan you know. make a clan patch if ES wont make one. as long as all the clan download it we can all play. maybe cyclo could make one, that would be really cool.