Impact: Its been a long hard slog for the former staffers of Ensemble Studios who make up Robot. One might expect that having Ensemble shuttered by Microsoft despite a history of hit PC games, and then having the online incarnation of Ensemble’s top franchise Age of Empires transferred to a different studio, might be cause for bitterness. What we see instead is a new drive at Robot – as at other independent studios like Respawn and Bungie – to develop and control their own IP. That may have seemed like small potatoes a few years ago, yet as digital distribution and GAS models gain ground, small studios have a better chance at profiting from their labors than ever before if they can secure production financing.