Robot Entertainment

Robot Entertainment is a video game development and publishing company created by the founders of the defunct Ensemble Studios, after being shut down by Microsoft.[1] Other members of the company founded another studio, Bonfire Studios. Robot Entertainment was responsible for maintaining and updating Halo Wars until February 28, 2010, when Microsoft Studios assumed control of the game servers and updates. Also, in January 2011, Microsoft Studios took over updates and servers for Age of Empires III. Robot Entertainment have since released games including Orcs Must Die!, Orcs Must Die! 2, Hero Academy, Echo Prime, Orcs Must Die! Unchained and Hero Academy 2.

Robot Entertainment
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
PredecessorEnsemble Studios
FoundedFebruary 2009
HeadquartersPlano, Texas, United States
Key people
Tony Goodman, Patrick Hudson, Harter Ryan
ProductsAge of Empires Online
Orcs Must Die! series
Hero Academy series
Echo Prime
Number of employees
30 employees
Websitewww.robotentertainment.com

History

On July 10, 2010, the company announced that they were working on two games; the first of which was published by Microsoft Studios, and is a real-time strategy game, similar to the Age of Empires series.

On August 17, 2010, the company announced the new game, Age of Empires Online. The game features a new stylized, 'cartoon' look, with Robot promising that it would offer gameplay depth. On 24 February 2011, Robot announced that Gas Powered Games would be taking over development on Age of Empires Online. Robot Entertainment President Patrick Hudson stated that handing over the development was expected, saying, "The plan was always to move to [an] original IP as soon as we had the ability to focus on our core business goal."[2]

On February 24, 2011, the company announced the new game Orcs Must Die!. The game was published by Robot Entertainment as well as being self-developed by them.[3]

On November 17, 2011, the company announced the new game Hero Academy. It is the company's first game developed for mobile devices.[4]

In June 2012, Robot Entertainment partnered with Yodo1 in an effort to release a Chinese version of Hero Academy.[5]

On February 27, 2015, it was announced that Tencent Holdings have bought an undisclosed, minority stake in Robot Entertainment.[6]

On March 27, 2018, Robot Entertainment laid off over 30 employees following the release of Hero Academy 2.[7]

While the Tencent investment had helped the studio for some years, Orcs Must Die! Unchained failed to be profitable for the company, and in January 2019, announced that it would be closing the servers later that year for Unchained, as well as for Hero Academy and its sequel. Additionally, Robot downsized to less than 25 employees. Despite the downsizing, the company stated that they had two games in development.[8][9]

The first of these games was revealed as Ready Set Heroes, a PlayStation 4 game developed in partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment and announced during the March 2019 Sony's "State of Play" stream.[10]

The second game, Orcs Must Die! 3 was announced at the 2019 gamescom event in August. It will release in Summer 2020[11] as a timed exclusive on Stadia, with other platforms to be announced at a later date.[8] According to CEO Patrick Hudson, Robot Entertainment had been ready to shelve the Orcs Must Die series after deciding to shut down Unchained and to focus on smaller games, but while meeting with Google to discuss opportunities for the Stadia platform, they found that Google's developers were fans of the Orcs Must Die series, leading to this new title which is partially funded by Google.[12]

Games
Title Genre Release
Date
Age of Empires Online[13] Real-time strategy 2011
Orcs Must Die![14] Action, tower defense 2011
Hero Academy[15][4] Turn-based tactics 2012
Orcs Must Die! 2 Action, tower defense 2012
Echo Prime Action role-playing game 2013
Orcs Must Die! Unchained Action, tower defense 2017
Hero Academy 2 Turn-based tactics 2017
ReadySet Heroes Dungeon Crawler, Party game 2019
Orcs Must Die! 3 Action, tower defense 2020

References
  1. "Official Website". Robot Entertainment. 2009-02-15. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  2. "Age of Empires Online swaps devs". PC Gamer. February 24, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  3. "Robot Entertainment Unveils Orcs Must Die!". Robot Entertainment. February 24, 2011. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  4. "Robot Entertainment Announces Hero Academy". Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  5. "Beijing-based Yodo1 grabs $2m to help US game developers crack China". The Next Web: Asia. June 28, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2012.
  6. James Brightman (February 27, 2015). "Tencent makes minority investment in Robot Entertainment". Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  7. Javy Gwaltney (March 27, 2018). "Layoffs Hit Orcs Must Die Developer Robot Entertainment". Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  8. Takahashi, Dean (August 19, 2019). "Robot Entertainment bounces back with Orcs Must Die! 3 and Ready Set Heroes". Venture Beat. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  9. Patrick Hudson (January 7, 2019). "Games Ceasing Operations". Retrieved January 7, 2019.
  10. Nathan Anstadt (March 25, 2019). "Ready Set Heroes Launches Later This Year For PlayStation". Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  11. "Battles against the orc hordes of Orcs Must Die! 3 will start at Stadia in summer". igamesnews. April 28, 2020. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  12. McAloon, Alissa (August 19, 2019). "Before Stadia came along, Robot had shelved the Orcs Must Die series". Gamasutra. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  13. "Age of Empires Online". Robot Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 22, 2010. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  14. "Ex-Age Of Empires Devs Working On A New Unknown Game". Robot Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 13, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
  15. "Hero Academy - Robot Entertainment". www.robotentertainment.com.
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