Ensemble's new studio to support Halo Wars; future of Halo franchise discussed PDF Print E-mail
Written by Phil Meza   
Saturday, 31 January 2009
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Normally when the development team behind a title gets halved/canned/reduced, etc. prior to the game's release, things don't bode too well for the product after it hits shelves. In Halo Wars' case, the entire studio, not just the team, was completely shuttered by their owners, Microsoft, last year. And now that the somewhat risky console-exclusive RTS is about to hit, it's high time we start to ponder what the fate of the title is, and where the developers stand when it comes to supporting it post-release.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Jason Pace, lead producer on Halo Wars and head of the Halo franchise at Microsoft Game Studios, alleviated any concerns. For the most part. The new studio that will be forming out of the remains of Ensemble? They got things covered.

"Ensemble is, as I'm sure you know, forming a new company, and they will be helping us support the title moving forward, so: bug patches, any kind of fixes - we'll have all those folks available to work on it ... As a studio right now, we're talking about what we'd like to do to carry this game forward. We're really excited about this game. We obviously have a lot of ideas of areas we'd like to go. We haven't committed to anything yet, but I believe you'll probably be hearing something soon ... "

As for the Ensemble/Microsoft/Halo relationship? "I can tell you right now that we are really interested in continuing our relationship with Ensemble [the new studio]. We don't have anything finalised that I can discuss, but certainly that is something we'd love to continue if possible. Obviously what's happened with Ensemble has presented a new set of circumstances for us to think about. But that certainly hasn't altered what we'd like to do in the future with the title at all."

Pace also notes that there are things - including apparently "dozens" of features that were cut from the title - that could be possibly offered up as, oh I don't know, DLC? That's good to hear. Keep those programmers busy. In addition, Pace talks up what and where Microsoft are considering doing with the Halo IP - beyond this initial RTS.

"I would not be able to comment on that [a sequel to Halo Wars] now, but I can tell you from the perspective of the franchise that we're very excited about all of the potential that it has...Halo Wars is a triple-A title for the [Halo] franchise. The way we conceive it is absolutely on par with one of the first-person shooter games. And so we're very much interested in how, and in what ways, we carry the entire franchise forward - including Halo Wars as a title. So definitely we're thinking a lot about that."

The list for future outlets sure is endless. Halo Kart Racer, anyone?



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Last Updated ( Saturday, 31 January 2009 )
 
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