Microsoft is investing in their first party studios like never before.

[Scoobes]

NotStan said:

Scoobes said:

NotStan said:

http://kotaku.com/5157029/so-why-did-ensemble-studios-close-up

I like strategy games as much as anyone, but it's one of the genres that has really decreased in following over the last years, it doesn't make sense to make strategy games when the audience just isn't there, and when you specialize in strategy games.. I hope you're not stupid enough not to guess the outcome of that scenario.

Halo Wars sold on the basis that it had the word HALO in it, just like anything that does sells better than most PS3 exclusives - if you want to play it that way.

I suppose Starcraft 2 selling 1 million in a day doesn't count? Or the fact that as of October 2007 Age of Empires 3 had sold over 2 million copies. RTS games are still pretty big.

Now take into account MW3 selling 10 million copies in the first 24 hours, Halo, Gears et le selling 3 million copies within the first weeks/48 hours, you really get a contrast into how much the strategy genre has become irrelevant in comparison with what is the current mass - shooters and Action/RPG's. Starcraft is a brand like no other, this was the second iteration of the game to be released in the last decade - such anticipation and hype is rarely rivaled.

RTS games are moderate, decently sized but really not that more worth investing in when shooters are considerably more popular. When a studio concentrates on RTS and has practically no RTS direction it could go in, in regards to the MS 360 orientation, you know the studio is just pointless asset at the time.

By this logic the only games developers should bother making from now on are shooters and Angry Birds clones, afterall, they get the most sales. I suppose Mass Effect, Witcher, Little Big Planet and Dragon Age were absolute failures too considerring they didn't rack up as many sales in the first 48 hours. The genre isn't irrelevant just because shooters sell ridiculously at this point in time. You also have hybrid strategy games selling well such as the Total War series which shows there is an interest in strategy games as well as the examples I gave previously. 

Furthermore, most RTS games are on PC. PC games rely heavily on legs, moreso than console games that get the majority of sales in the first 2 weeks and peter out (unless they're Call of Duty or a major Nintendo franchise).

As for MS, you say that Ensemble were a pointless asset but within the year they'd started on AoE: Online. They had an RTS direction to go in and the studio was also smaller than the vast majority of studios working on the HD consoles. 75 people at their height compared to 200 at Rare. The upper management had a knee-jerk reaction and closed a studio with no prior warning. Most studios would at least go through a restructure before being canned altogether.