Ensemble was not a bad acquisition. No acquisition has to be a bad acquisition. You take a studio of talented developers or at the very least competent developers, and you give them some funding and some time, and let their creative energy ferment a little and see what they can come up with.
I have a belief that most of these developers, whether you consider them good or bad, at least know how to make a game, so all that needs to be done is they need to be disciplined.
Case in point, Guerrilla Games. GG doesn't have a very good track record if you go far enough into their history. They used to be called "Lost Boys," and they made games for Gameboy, PS2, and Xbox. And their games were pretty bad, very bad, actually.
But Sony gave them funding and let them work on a grand, exclusive game, and they came up with Killzone, which was a pretty good shooter from a developer who was known for Shellshock: Nam 67, one of the crappiest shooters ever.
And now, GG has spearheaded the Killzone franchise into greateness.
Where there's talent, there's potential.
I don't think that RARE is a bad studio. I think that some good guys left the studio and people lost confidence in RARE, but worst of all, Microsoft chooses not to utilize RARE for anything special. MS orders RARE to make Avatars and Avatar accessories and now Kinect games.
I think if Microsoft gave RARE a bigger budget and more time, RARE could come up with a very great game.
Also, Ensemble made Age of Empires, so they were not a bad acquisition by Microsoft and therefore should not be in the honorable mention for worst acquisition.
Yeah, Halo Wars was pretty good, but I think the fact the MS took Ensemble a developer who always had a proven track record, and basically threw Halo at them then disbanded them right after they were done, it's kinda like 'use and abuse'. If Ensemble stayed independent they could have completed Halo Wars then maybe ventured out with a new RTS IP. Who knows?
@Soad That is a lucid, intelligent, and well thought out comment. Bubbles for you and the first person who figures out the reference I am making with this response. No googling.
Ensemble was a TERRIBLE acqusition. As soon as they finished Halo Wars they were disolved as a studio. To which they promptly said F-U to Microsoft and made there own studio.
@mrjenkins (reply fail) Zune, Kin, HD-DVD, numerous development studios, windows vista, windows phone 7, Encarta, Ms dewey, Bing (probably), DOS 4.0, IE 5, bob, active x, clippy, winME
and just because a lot of people have been dumb enough to buy (and re-buy and re-buy...) their broken xbox even though it has numerous hardware faults and general bad design choices it's deemed successful?
Wow so you bash HD-DVD which wasnt even Microsofts own property, they just chose to back it. Vista wasn't even bad it was blown over by media hype, Encarta used to be the most used in the world till Wiki came. How you can say that Bing (probably) when its consistently gaining market share has failed bemuses me. Windows phone 7 hasn't even launched lol.
Then there's Zune which whilst it hasnt been commercially successful is a kick ass media player which is better than the iPhone in all things bar apps.
You're just a deluded sad little fanboy but of course Sony has never released a bad product cough Betamax cough. I could make a list too but unlike you I don't take a gripe on companies just because they're from a rival platform of a gaming console.
Vista wasn't that BAD? Sure it didn't make me sick, but man it was inefficent, problematic and unless you reinstalled every 3 months you'd notice such a performance drop.
I made a switch to Ubuntu because Vista was THAT bad.
Trust me Bing will fail because at the end of the day the internet is google.
Betamax which provided advanced quality was still used in television into this century BTW.
SEGA's Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive didn't make the list? Football Manager and Total War franchise are some of the biggest selling games in Europe.
good point tentacle.... On topic... I feel rare is the biggest bust this gen.. They made one of my favorite games on the N64, yet they havent had a single AAA game since then.
I buy an xbox if they brought back the comic-satire-genius that was Conkers bad fur day...
RARE made me buy two consols in the past I was SEGA fan and bought SNES for DKC,PS1 fan and got N64 for B&Z and Conker.
Now they are really one of the worst,even i,m sad for M$ losing 400m$ on them.
:'( I'm still reeling from the loss of Westwood and Ensemble studios. I would say Blizzard and the Actibision merger, but still a bit too early to speculate.
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I have a belief that most of these developers, whether you consider them good or bad, at least know how to make a game, so all that needs to be done is they need to be disciplined.
Case in point, Guerrilla Games. GG doesn't have a very good track record if you go far enough into their history. They used to be called "Lost Boys," and they made games for Gameboy, PS2, and Xbox. And their games were pretty bad, very bad, actually.
But Sony gave them funding and let them work on a grand, exclusive game, and they came up with Killzone, which was a pretty good shooter from a developer who was known for Shellshock: Nam 67, one of the crappiest shooters ever.
And now, GG has spearheaded the Killzone franchise into greateness.
Where there's talent, there's potential.
I don't think that RARE is a bad studio. I think that some good guys left the studio and people lost confidence in RARE, but worst of all, Microsoft chooses not to utilize RARE for anything special. MS orders RARE to make Avatars and Avatar accessories and now Kinect games.
I think if Microsoft gave RARE a bigger budget and more time, RARE could come up with a very great game.
Also, Ensemble made Age of Empires, so they were not a bad acquisition by Microsoft and therefore should not be in the honorable mention for worst acquisition.
Microsoft doesn't utilize its studios well.
.
i loved halo wars it was a really good RTS (for consuls never held a candle to Dawn of war thought IMO)
That is a lucid, intelligent, and well thought out comment. Bubbles for you and the first person who figures out the reference I am making with this response. No googling.
really? i heard fanboys have the same effect on everything..
Well said buddy, bubble for you.
Zune, Kin, HD-DVD, numerous development studios, windows vista, windows phone 7, Encarta, Ms dewey, Bing (probably), DOS 4.0, IE 5, bob, active x, clippy, winME
and just because a lot of people have been dumb enough to buy (and re-buy and re-buy...) their broken xbox even though it has numerous hardware faults and general bad design choices it's deemed successful?
add it to the list I say.
Then there's Zune which whilst it hasnt been commercially successful is a kick ass media player which is better than the iPhone in all things bar apps.
You're just a deluded sad little fanboy but of course Sony has never released a bad product cough Betamax cough. I could make a list too but unlike you I don't take a gripe on companies just because they're from a rival platform of a gaming console.
I made a switch to Ubuntu because Vista was THAT bad.
Trust me Bing will fail because at the end of the day the internet is google.
Betamax which provided advanced quality was still used in television into this century BTW.
didn't make the list? Football Manager and Total War franchise are some of the biggest selling games in Europe.
On topic... I feel rare is the biggest bust this gen.. They made one of my favorite games on the N64, yet they havent had a single AAA game since then.
I buy an xbox if they brought back the comic-satire-genius that was Conkers bad fur day...
Edit: oops sorry misread the heading. It's accquistions, not worst and best devs.
I was SEGA fan and bought SNES for DKC,PS1 fan and got N64 for B&Z and Conker.
Now they are really one of the worst,even i,m sad for M$ losing 400m$ on them.
You have no idea what you're talking about.