I’ll try to take off my 360 Fanboy hat for a second and look at M$ decision to shut down Ensemble and absorb the employees into the new Microsoft Game Studios entity and what it means for the consoles future.  As I’ve said from when this news FIRST hit, the move by M$ was part of their “quiet” new strategy to apply some course corrections to the gaming strategy.  Without a doubt, the Mii’s aren’t the only thing M$ is siphoning off Nintendo, since M$ is looking at the huge profit margins for Nintendo, and are probably looking to tap into that potential as well.  The facts are this, 3^rd party software titles are critical to consoles long term success, since independent developers are the best means to push the envelope for the hardware, but having a in-house studio, with the capability to innovate and create new and refreshing IP content is far more important, imho.

I find it somewhat incredulous that he was totally out of the loop.  http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/halo-wars/912697p1.html

I’ll provide an example in several other industry that might resonate and provide some analogy to contrast and compare.  I’m a huge Marvel fanboy  (TDK wasn’t that great, imho, and IM and TIH were far more entertaining, imho…bang bang), and I’ve been following the company for years…actually over a decade now.  The decision to self produce its own films was both controversial, and extremely risky, but  looking back now, on that decision, it was extremely sound.  Marvel is STILL going to push for 3^rd party movies, with other studios, but in-house studios movies are now at the core of the corporate strategy.  I think it’s going to be the same for M$.  You just have to look at Apple as another example of the importance of in-house competencies in your business model.

So, I know what some of you guys are going to say…Ensemble and Bungie were OWNED by M$...and I’ll say this to you’ll…take some lessons in Organizational Behavior 101, then come back to argue this point.  This is fundamentals, wither you’re in Government, in corporate industry, or in a social organization.  Having entities with individual identities, under a corporate umbrella breeds some innovation and creativity, but at the expense of control and efficiency.  Bungie split was the harbinger of how risking such a tenuous existence can be, and how unreliable such a situation can be.  In the case of a merger like Activision-Blizzard, sure, because you’re in a merger of equals, but this WASN’T the case with these others.   This is like finding a 5^th rounder in the draft, and the person blossoms into a star,  and then you fail to get a long-term contract and lose them to Free Agency…it would have been better to trade them and get some great exchanges.  M$ spun-off Bungie, because they had no choice…the Bungie guys were independent, and they had unity and wanted more independence.  M$ only benefited from spinning them off, and on great terms to ensure they stay 360 developers.

The flip side is to have MGS as a living breathing entity, in order to develop NEW IP and push the already existing stuff.  Just look at this site for M$ Game Studios…how pathetic is this? 

http://www.microsoft.com/games/

The site is TOTALLY not updated…Too Human has been released and it’s still listed as TBD?  WTF???  The current MGS is nothing more than a empty husk, but I believe M$ is shifting resources to stand this thing up as a fully capable studios, capable of generating and pushing a IP to fruition, whereas now, its at best a empty shell, and at worst, a clog in the machine of efficiency.  Will the strategy work, I really can’t say, but what I can say is this, if the goal is to streamline and provide great reliability and control to the in-house gaming line, then this is a really good move, because I really believe that rumor about 10-12 M$ exclusive might be on the drawing board.

Just looking at the math on developing a game for this generation…estimates are like $20-100 million for top shelf efforts…if you’re M$, and you can pump out a HALO or two in a batch, isn’t it worth you dropping 200-300 sunk cost into the process to get 10-15 projects started and living and breathing?  The payoff is massive…considering that HALO 3 made $$$$$$$$$ in ONE day!

that will be great when Halo wars comes out knowing the Studio who made it is no longer in buisness. ha, talk about some high morale for workers there.

interesting read. This is all based around the idea that MS will create its own in-house developement team, right?

If I'm not mistaken Bungie was its own studio, not owned by M$ at all, it can't be dissolved like Ensemble was. On the other hand Ensemble was owned by M$ hence what is happening. The name Ensemble by itself holds a lot of weight with gamers, especially ones that have been around the block a few times. Except Liongate I haven't heard of any of the current MGS studios, and I've only seen crappy to mediocre games churned out by Lionhead so it is not the good type of knowing. Bad move M$.

Really? What games might those have been?

Morale is a concern, I'm sure, but it's not like they were fired or not given an opportunity to get onboard the new team...in fact, that was explicitly stated by Shelley.  He's leaving, but the core team is staying, so I don't think it was a moral killer, since these guys would have had much problem getting a new job, in fact, the studio head is expected to lead MGS...hardly a morale killer. 

@Shadowblind

I thin the new studios will probably develop stuff, but also managed projects, ala Lucas Games.  The story on that game studios history was pretty enlightening, shows how having flexibility and variety in your apporach is critical to success.

Black&White 1, 2, and Fable. The Movies is the onlyone that looked interesting, but I didn't hear anything about it so I'm assuming it wasn't groundbreaking either. I should check it out though.

 No, you're mistaken, Microsoft wholly owned Bungie, but they spun them off to avoid a defection.  it was making the best out of a bad situation, but still not optimal for M$. 

"Bungie is an American video game developer founded in May 1991 under the name Bungie Software Products Corporation by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. Originally based in Chicago, the company concentrated primarily on Macintosh games during its first nine years of existence, producing the popular Marathon and Myth series as well as games such as Oni. In 2000, Bungie was acquired by Microsoft, and their current project Halo: Combat Evolved was turned into a first-person shooter and launch title for Microsoft's new Xbox game console. Halo went on to become the Xbox's "killer app", and the game and its two sequels have sold millions of copies.

On October 5, 2007, Bungie announced that it had split with Microsoft and become a privately held independent company, Bungie LLC. Despite splitting from Microsoft, the studio will still be producing products for Xbox 360 but is free to develop for other platforms. Bungie is an independent developer, currently based in Kirkland, Washington."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie

Alright I stand corrected. The rest of my post still stands.

Mmmm, I see. Forgive me if I avoid most of your posts from now on.