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What Killed Ensemble and Pandemic
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Posted by Donster on: 2010-03-15 17:07:36 209
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Source: Blue's News
One-time Ensemble developer Paul Bettner spoke at GDC about the closure of Ensemble Studios by Microsoft, blaming the studio's internal culture for its demise, rather than the corporate coldness of Microsoft in comments reported on Eurogamer. "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," he said. "Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive." He describes a "crunch" culture where "everyone was a workaholic," taking personal responsibility, saying: "I watched this happen and I did almost nothing to stop it. As an employee, and later as a manager, I didn't take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high." He discusses the "devastating" effect this has, saying: "We burn out all our best people."
The closure of Pandemic Studios by EA is also discussed from a first-hand perspective, as Carey Chico, formerly of the studio, describes their downfall as a lack of discipline following their capital influx from merging with BioWare: "When you have your own money, what happens is that you have to maintain your own accountability internally, and if you don't have that, you just f**k everything up."
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News Source: Email
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