Ensemble Studios

Ensemble Studios was a Microsoft-owned company that developed several computer video games, including the Age of Empires Series.

Overview
The company was founded in 1995, in Dallas, Texas, by Tony Goodman, his brother, Rick Goodman, along with Bruce Shelley and Brian Sullivan. After two years, it released its first game, Age of Empires. In May 2001, Microsoft acquired the company. It employed about 100 people, including notable game developers; Bruce Shelley, Graeme Devine and Sandy Petersen.

Ensemble was closed in 2009, in a decision made by Microsoft that was announced on September 9, 2008. Many former employees subsequently went on to found the companies Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios.

Games
The company is the developer of the notable Age of Empires series of games, composed of Age of Empires, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Empires III. They also released Age of Mythology, a spin-off from the original series in 2002. Expansion packs were released for all their games.

Ensemble released "Age of Empires III", on October 18, 2005, in North America. It follows on from the end of Age of Empires II, set during European explorations of the Americas. The game became the fastest selling title of the series, and has sold over 3 million copies.

The first expansion to Age of Empires III, titled Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs included new content, new gameplay elements, a new single-player campaign, and three new native American civilizations. It was originally set for an October 2, 2006 release, but was released later, on October 17, 2006. The final expansion, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, featured three Asian civilizations, three different campaigns, existing gameplay element additions, and was co-developed with Big Huge Games.

Ensemble worked in collaboration with Bungie Studios on Halo Wars, an Xbox 360 exclusive real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe.

Despite Ensemble's closure, Robot Entertainment released an update for Age of Empires III and was responsible for maintaining ESO operations.