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What really killed Ensemble and Pandemic.


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Former employees of Ensemble Studios and Pandemic Studios have blamed the developers' demise on their own company cultures, rather than the publishers that owned and closed them, Microsoft and EA.

 

Speaking at GDC, Paul Bettner, who worked at Ensemble for 12 years, refused to blame Microsoft for the studio's closure. "The reality is that every single game we shipped took twice as long as we said it was going to take, and cost twice as much to make.

 

"Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive."

Bettner's comments, which received a standing ovation from the GDC audience, were echoed by Carey Chico, formerly of Pandemic Studios which was recently shut down by EA.

 

It was the developer's culture - its lack of accountability and inability to hit milestones internally - that sealed its fate, Chico said. He said the problems began with the studio's venture capital windfall when it merged with BioWare.

 

"We were very good for a long period of time in the middle there," Chico said, referring to the time when the studio made titles like Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries.

 

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Ensemble were awesome. AoE and AoM are some of the best RTS games I've ever played. :D

 

+1

 

You played online as well what was your ranking in Aoe3?

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+1

 

You played online as well what was your ranking in Aoe3?

 

I was 13 when I played AoE3.....didn't play MP back then. I started playing online only once I got the 360.

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Afaik, GT5's production cost should already be recovered by now. Every copy they sell should be pure profit. Yeah the delays are sad, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. It won't be a sequel that'll be forgotten 3-4 months after its release.

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Hi are you PACHTER

 

Oh Plz! I have a much better track record compared to that douche.

 

For eg. This post by me last year

I don't think killzone 3 will make it next year but another shooter might along with resistance 3. :panic:

 

Socom 4 :(

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