N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

i hope that bhg or another leading company will look at this as a chance to take a forefather under their wing, imagine if something happened like this to a subsidiary of nintendo, sony or microsoft would potentially jump right on it

I wouldn't be surprised if it's basically a name change... these things happen often in big companies for several reasons, so let's wait and see what the real impact will be.

I agree with chaos.

Tis a shame, aoe1 was my first pc game i was into, and aoc was my favorite. Best rts company imo, microsoft is sure to continue the series, wonder how they'll turn out. Also really hopes this doesnt mean no balance patch for tad.

Microsoft never cared for aoe. We see blizzard all the time sponsoring huge cash prize tourneys and stuff while Microsoft/ES can't even sponsor places for every country at WCG.

[quote=""Sporting_Lisbon""]Microsoft never cared for aoe. We see blizzard all the time sponsoring huge cash prize tourneys and stuff while Microsoft/ES can't even sponsor places for every country at WCG.[/quote]

We probably should have seen this coming when MS stopped hosting AOE. I cannot see how this possibly could be good.

Quote:

Although Microsoft noted that the Ensemble management team intends to open a new, independent studio, the publisher made no mention of what would happen to the lucrative Age of Empires franchise. Posting to its marketing venue GamerScoreBlog today, Kevin Unangst, director of Microsoft's Games for Windows PC label, confirmed that it has retained the rights to Age of Empires.

"If you're a PC gamer, you've likely played some version of Age of Empires somewhere along the line," said Unangst. "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."

Sorry Strokey, but this sounds like the usual marketing crap.

I am quite pessimistic about Age. I don't doubt that there will be another Age game but i think it won't be nothing more for M$ than a convenient cash cow.
Just like what EA has done with Westwood titles. Quite good example is C&C Kanes Revenge: Only one patch for the most important problems, most resources went after release to RA3 to get it finished for the planned release date. (Will be a rootkit shipping with it by the way)
So this assurance is more a joke or threat to me. Else why shutting ES down? Better it would have been if the old staff would have gotten the Age brand for their new company
And M$ isn't so interested in PC games anymore. They have to push the XBOX 360 as u already saw when ES had to develop Halo Wars for Xbox.

Also another interesting commentary to the closure of ES
http://pc.ign.com/articles/909/909099p1.html


And about the zone: Well it is quite difficult to maintain software which is out of date and get it running on a new Windows machine. Everybody would shut it down if it isn't critical for a company instead of investing money to write a new one or alter the old one

There was a line that was all too true in that article you posted, Comadevil: "There's no column for 'sentiment' in the balance sheets.'"

It is always sad to remember that business doesn't give a darn about creativity or artistic accomplishment so long as it is not profitable. Even when it is profitable, business has a fickle heart; once the numbers sag, it's curtains, no matter how long the relationship. This is how capitalism operates with regard to art and creativity: "We like it when you make us money. Otherwise, get the heck out of our sight."

I think all of us here understand that there is value in true creativity. Yet this is exactly the "sentiment" value that business rejects. But there is a place for us all

I don't want to think too far ahead, but since N3O is exclusively AOE3, is there any thought on a what's next if ESO goes dark?

[quote=""Palehorse""]I don't want to think too far ahead, but since N3O is exclusively AOE3, is there any thought on a what's next if ESO goes dark?[/quote]

I think we wait until there is more definative information, but I'm pretty sure that whatever happens AOE will continue one way or another.

[quote=""StrokeyBlofeld""][quote=""Palehorse""]I don't want to think too far ahead, but since N3O is exclusively AOE3, is there any thought on a what's next if ESO goes dark?[/quote]

I think we wait until there is more definative information, but I'm pretty sure that whatever happens AOE will continue one way or another.[/quote]

agreed.

worst case, LaZy will probably start a thread: 'The Official N3O AOE4 challenge' and ask for some members to make it :p

Some of you may have seen this already.....

Quote:


I am sure that you have all heard the news by now, Ensemble Studios closing its doors after we ship Halo Wars. It was certainly a shock to everyone when we found out about the decision. The team took it as best they could given the circumstances, and handled themselves professionally.

We are happy that Ensemble got to spend as much time as we did entertaining our fans over the last 12 years, and we would not be where we are without such a great bunch of people standing behind us. For what it is worth we thank you. As we move into the future we will continue to support the Age of Empires and Halo Wars fans and franchises and make sure that they are supported fairly.

I am incredibly proud our team here at Ensemble and of the time we have spent making games for you. It has been some of the best years we have had.

[quote=""StrokeyBlofeld""]Some of you may have seen this already.....

Quote:


I am sure that you have all heard the news by now, Ensemble Studios closing its doors after we ship Halo Wars. It was certainly a shock to everyone when we found out about the decision. The team took it as best they could given the circumstances, and handled themselves professionally.

We are happy that Ensemble got to spend as much time as we did entertaining our fans over the last 12 years, and we would not be where we are without such a great bunch of people standing behind us. For what it is worth we thank you. As we move into the future we will continue to support the Age of Empires and Halo Wars fans and franchises and make sure that they are supported fairly.

I am incredibly proud our team here at Ensemble and of the time we have spent making games for you. It has been some of the best years we have had.[/quote]

You beat me to it, Jim. These words from ES seem to suggest that ESO will remain alive for the foreseeable future. I might add that this statement seems to reflect a sense of cheated disbelief among the ES employees. After all, look at how proud and contented they seemed in the posts before this one. MS just dropped a bomb on them, no doubt about it.