Age of Empires nearly began as a tank game. Bruce Shelley told Computer Gaming World in 2001 that Ensemble Studios’ first ideas were a tank demo that Angelo Laudon and Tony Goodman, the company’s chief executive, had put together, and a game about surviving a shipwreck. “We dropped those after Tim Deen insisted we play WarCraft,” Shelley said, “and we decided to add features from Civilization to an RTS.” The result, published by Microsoft in October 1997, sold more than two million copies in two years and started a series that Microsoft was still publishing in the 2020s. Ensemble itself did not last that long.
Fast facts
- Founded: in Dallas, Texas, by Tony Goodman and Rick Goodman; Bruce Shelley joined in 1995.
- Games: Age of Empires (1997) and The Rise of Rome (1998), Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999), Age of Mythology (2002), Age of Empires III (2005) and Halo Wars (2009).
- Owner: an independent studio publishing through Microsoft until 2001, when Microsoft bought it.
- Closed: by Microsoft, in 2009.
- Successors: Robot Entertainment, Bonfire Studios and Newtoy, among others.
Warcraft meets Civilization
Shelley brought the Civilization half. He had co-designed Civilization and Railroad Tycoon with Sid Meier at MicroProse, and in 1995 he joined the new Dallas studio founded by Rick and Tony Goodman. Some accounts count him among the founders: Computer Gaming World called him an “Ensemble cofounder” in 2001, and Sid Meier said in 2012 that Shelley “went on to found Ensemble Studios”. Computer Gaming World’s preview of Age of Empires in 1997 explained the mix: the controls of Blizzard’s Warcraft II, and the research and the ages of discovery of Civilization. Shelley and Rick Goodman designed it together. It became the magazine’s Multiplayer Game of the Year, and by July 1998 it was “on the verge of breaking the million-copy sales mark”. Not bad, CGW added, for “Ensemble’s first game”. The game itself has its own entry.
Rick Goodman, the lead designer, left in 1998 to found Stainless Steel Studios, where he made Empire Earth. Ensemble stayed with the formula and moved it to the Middle Ages: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings came out in 1999. By then, PC Player in Germany reported, two million copies of the first game had been sold, and its expansion The Rise of Rome was still in the charts. Shelley told the magazine the studio wanted to make the non-military side, exploring, building an empire and its economy, “much more interesting and important”, without shrinking the fighting the hardcore players loved.
Microsoft’s studio
In 2001 Microsoft bought Ensemble outright. Computer Gaming World reported that Stuart Moulder, head of Microsoft’s PC games division, promised a third Age of Empires with a historical setting, perhaps the age of discovery. In the meantime Ensemble licensed its engine to LucasArts for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and turned to legend. Age of Mythology (2002) was drawn in 3D, on a new engine called BANG! that Dave Pottinger had developed; the aim, PC Player reported, was to lose none of the detail of the sprite graphics in Age of Empires. Gods replaced civilisations, and players could call down natural disasters and send cyclops and minotaurs into battle.
Age of Empires III followed in 2005, a game about the European colonisation of America. Ensemble decided that Native American nations would appear as allies on the map rather than as playable civilisations, and Microsoft consulted representatives of different tribes. “It was impossible to get consensus on any issue,” the studio’s president, Tony Goodman, told Computer Gaming World.
Halo Wars and the closure
Ensemble’s last game was its first for a console. Halo Wars was a real-time strategy game for the Xbox 360 set in Bungie’s Halo universe, and Edge noted that it was the first Halo game not made by Bungie. Microsoft announced in September 2008 that it would close Ensemble once Halo Wars was finished, and the game came out in February 2009, after the studio’s staff had already begun to set up new companies. Edge called the closure of the “hundreds-strong veteran RTS developer” a blow to the games industry in Dallas.
The studio’s staff did not leave the business. Within a year Edge counted more than five new developers in Dallas started by Ensemble veterans. Robot Entertainment made Orcs Must Die! and the iOS game Hero Academy. Paul and David Bettner, both Ensemble veterans, founded Newtoy in 2008 and made Words With Friends; Zynga later bought Newtoy and another Ensemble offshoot, Bonfire Studios.
The series after Ensemble
Microsoft kept the series going without its creators. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a remaster of the first game, came out for Windows 10 in February 2018, and Relic Entertainment’s Age of Empires IV followed in 2021 (see the Age of Empires entry for both).
Sources
- Computer Gaming World issue 159, October 1997, pp. 78–79: Age of Empires preview (Shelley, “cocreator of Civilization”; Warcraft II-style controls; ages of discovery).
- Computer Gaming World issue 168, July 1998, p. 56: Multiplayer Game of the Year; nearly a million copies; “Ensemble’s first game”; Shelley’s design begun in 1995.
- PC Player (Germany), November 1999, p. 49: profile of Bruce Shelley (joined Ensemble in 1995; founded by Rick and Tony Goodman; designed Age of Empires with Rick Goodman; two million copies; The Rise of Rome in the charts; his plans for the series).
- Computer Gaming World issue 203, June 2001, pp. 70–75: Age of Mythology feature, calling Shelley an “Ensemble cofounder” (p. 70), with an interview with him (p. 75: the tank demo by Angelo Laudon and Tony Goodman; the shipwreck game; Tim Deen and Warcraft).
- Retro Gamer Collection, vol. 6 (2012), p. 211: interview with Sid Meier (Shelley “went on to found Ensemble Studios”).
- Computer Gaming World issue 202, May 2001, p. 31: Star Wars strategy games using Ensemble’s technology.
- Computer Gaming World issue 204, July 2001, p. 33 (Microsoft acquires Ensemble; Stuart Moulder on Age of Empires III), p. 36 (Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds on the Age of Empires engine) and p. 44 (Rick Goodman left in 1998 to found Stainless Steel Studios).
- PC Player (Germany), June 2001, pp. 22–23: Age of Mythology preview (3D graphics, the BANG! engine, Dave Pottinger, gods, disasters and monsters).
- Computer Gaming World issue 254, September 2005, p. 55: Age of Empires III, Native Americans in the game, the consultations and Tony Goodman’s quote.
- Edge issue 171, January 2007, p. 42: Halo Wars, an Xbox 360 strategy game by Ensemble.
- Edge issue 211, February 2010, p. 47 (Halo Wars the first Halo game not made by Bungie), p. 105 (the closure; new Dallas studios including Newtoy) and p. 136 (Newtoy founded in 2008 by Paul and David Bettner, Ensemble veterans; Words With Friends).
- Edge issue 238, March 2012, pp. 150 and 160: the disbanding of Ensemble in 2009; Robot Entertainment, Orcs Must Die! and Hero Academy; Zynga’s purchase of Bonfire Studios and Newtoy.
- Wikipedia, “Halo Wars” (web, secondary): the closure announced on 10 September 2008, to follow the game’s completion; released in February 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_Wars
- Microsoft, “Age of Empires: Definitive Edition now available on Windows 10 PCs worldwide”, Windows Experience Blog, 20 February 2018 (web, secondary). https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/02/20/age-empires-definitive-edition-now-available-windows-10-pcs-worldwide/