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Ensemble and Pandemic discuss closures

Published on 16th March 2010 by Joe Martin

Speaking at GDC, former staff from Ensemble and Pandemic discussed why the studios had to close.

At Game Developer's Conference this year some former staff from Microsoft's Ensemble and EA's Pandemic Studios took to the stage to discuss why both studios closed last year, according to Shacknews.

"We were simply too expensive," said Ensemble's Paul Bettner, explaining why he thought the studio had to close after such big games as Age of Empires and Halo Wars.

"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...everyone was a workaholic."

Bettner seemed willing to take a share of the blame himself too, saying that "as an employee, and later as a manager, I didn't take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high."

"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

Former Pandemic employee Carey Chico cited similar reasons for EA's closure of Pandemic too, saying that the developer had problems hitting milestones and dealing with accountability.

"We got our own money," he explained. "That was probably the beginning of the fall...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 [mess] everything up."

Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

7 Comments

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theflatworm 16th March 2010, 11:49

"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

Bravo that man! After all the stuff with Rockstar and Activision, it's nice to see someone putting employees first, even belatedly.

pizan 16th March 2010, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Article
"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

About time there is someone admitting this. From what I have read and from people I know this seems to be the least fun/rewarding industry to work in.

blood69 16th March 2010, 12:36

That's a major problem with developer companies this days, no just games development. I'm a program writer for 7 years now, and in every single company i worked they don't care about the complexity or the effort to develop. They just want results and fast. I'm sick of it, for two years now i am thinking in a new career and leave the programing stuff to personal things.

13eightyfour 16th March 2010, 12:49

Give the man (Bettner) a medal. Very rarely do we get to hear people in the industry telling it like it is.

cjoyce1980 16th March 2010, 13:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by theflatworm
"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

Bravo that man! After all the stuff with Rockstar and Activision, it's nice to see someone putting employees first, even belatedly.

kovacs 17th March 2010, 09:16

bye bye pandemic loved your mercenaries series.not in the industry myself but i think programmers are closer to artists then "normal jobs" but its an industry and the shareholders of these companies want there pound of flesh.They dont care how good a product they produce just how many units can be sold.Just look at iw's latest pile of tat 5hr single player,no dedicated servers and a price tag to make you think youve bought a ps3 game instead of a pc game kerching 1 billion dollars in the bank.This is the future

Elton 18th March 2010, 01:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by theflatworm
"This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them."

Bravo that man! After all the stuff with Rockstar and Activision, it's nice to see someone putting employees first, even belatedly.

+1 The truth is simply something that is too hard to accept.