According to next-gen news,Ensemble,the producer of famous Age of Empire,disclosed that they are planing for a MMOG title.

Patrick Hudson, Executive Producer points out that they haven‘t been secretive, "because we are advertising on our website that we‘re looking for people with MMO experience." �

Hudson explains the origin of the project.� "We‘ve got a lead designer here, his name‘s Ian Fischer, he‘s been here for a long time.� He‘s always wanted to do an MMO.� He‘s been playing MMOs since the early days, MUDs, before that."

The idea was proposed to Ensemble right after Ultima Online came out. ‘Why don‘t we do an MMO?‘ At the time, Ensemble was in no position to be thinking about it.� But Fischer persisted ever since.

"After we shipped Age III," Hudson says, "We started diving up the studio to do more games than we‘ve ever done, and get beyond Age of Empires."� A small team was put around Fischer to start working on a prototype.

"And that‘s where those guys still are." Hudson says.� "A pretty small group, just noodling away on ideas, a long way away from anything substantive and shipping anything, that‘s for sure.� But it‘s fun to explore."

"It‘s always been a risky kind of market to look at." Hudson admits.� "And then you see WoW come out, and turn the industry on its head, and you start to reevaluate.� ‘Wait a minute, there‘s a true business case out for a game like this.‘"

"Maybe it‘s not crazy to go spend thirty or forty million bucks to actually make one of these things."� Hudson points out, "At some point, they‘ll get tired of WoW and want to play something else."

"We haven‘t settled on anything," Hudson cautions.� "It‘s safe to say we won‘t be chasing the fantasy genre.� It seems like there are so many coming out.� [We‘re] still pretty far out from even thinking of taking that prototype to a greenlight phase."

As for monthly subscription fees: "Yeah, I think that‘s the business model we mostly believe in," Hudson says.� "There could be things that come along and change our mind, but there‘s a lot of people trying different things...� If anything, WoW is charging too little, not too much."

"So for us, it‘s just trying to get a little away from Age."� Hudson concludes, "It‘s been hugely successful - we‘re now up near almost 18 million units."

What does this mean for the future of the Age of Empires franchise?� "[We‘ll] just slow it down.� Probably take a little break from it," Hudson says.� "Microsoft would obviously like us to keep churning them out as quickly as possible."

"But you can only do that for so long."� Hudson adds.� Ensemble is successful and profitable enough as a studio that they get the leeway to spend money on prototypes.

"And [we] prototype probably a lot longer than most developers would take the time and effort to do," Hudson says.� "To Microsoft‘s chagrin, probably spend more on prototypes than they‘d ideally like."

But it ultimately returns, Hudson hopes, in a better game.� "Usually we kill our own prototypes before we take them up to Microsoft and say, ‘Hey, here‘s this new idea.‘"

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