If this gets moved to Future ES games I'll understand it, but I believed it is fitting to the new expansion topic.
The press release says:
This implies many many things. This could actually mean that ES will put all their effort into the Massive Online game they've been hiring for. The interesting thing is that if they will devote all their time to it, and haven't announced anything, it could maybe be something different from and RPG. Age of Empires Online, anyone? Perhaps they're committing their time and effort to actually create the MMORTS. We have talked about it, and many of us agree there'd be many problems with that genre, yet these guys might come up with something.
From a business viewpoint... and sorry if anyone at ES reads this, there's no pun intended. Maybe Microsoft decided that ES has stuck a little bit creativity-wise in the raditional RTS, and sees that BHG has more immediate ideas to help the genre evolve. However, those alone are not good enough, judging by the modest success of Rise of Legends. MS knows that Age of Empires is really profittable, so they give that franchise to the less experienced, fresh-minded studio, while appointing the gigantic task of creating a viable new genre to the vastly more experienced Ensemble Studios. Keep a great series fresh, and start the (at first) monopoly of the revolutionary Online gameplay experience that Ensemble might be working on.
I COULD be reading too much into it... but I guess this decision was beyond ES and BHG, it might come from up above.
Co-Author of the Aztec Civilization Outline for AoM.
Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to do The Hobbit!
Chichén Itzá is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World!
The press release says:
The latest expansion packBold text is mine, and the point of the thread. ES has been hinting at 5 Age games for some time now, and this may actually be a change of developer. We could see BHG's Age of Empires 4 & 5.will be the first "Age of Empires" title developed by Big Huge Games, the development studio responsible for the incredibly popular real-time strategy franchise "Rise of Nations®."
This implies many many things. This could actually mean that ES will put all their effort into the Massive Online game they've been hiring for. The interesting thing is that if they will devote all their time to it, and haven't announced anything, it could maybe be something different from and RPG. Age of Empires Online, anyone? Perhaps they're committing their time and effort to actually create the MMORTS. We have talked about it, and many of us agree there'd be many problems with that genre, yet these guys might come up with something.
From a business viewpoint... and sorry if anyone at ES reads this, there's no pun intended. Maybe Microsoft decided that ES has stuck a little bit creativity-wise in the raditional RTS, and sees that BHG has more immediate ideas to help the genre evolve. However, those alone are not good enough, judging by the modest success of Rise of Legends. MS knows that Age of Empires is really profittable, so they give that franchise to the less experienced, fresh-minded studio, while appointing the gigantic task of creating a viable new genre to the vastly more experienced Ensemble Studios. Keep a great series fresh, and start the (at first) monopoly of the revolutionary Online gameplay experience that Ensemble might be working on.
I COULD be reading too much into it... but I guess this decision was beyond ES and BHG, it might come from up above.
Co-Author of the Aztec Civilization Outline for AoM.
Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro to do The Hobbit!
Chichén Itzá is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World!