Former Ensemble head Tony Goodman opens mobile studio

Newsbrief: Tony Goodman, former CEO and co-founder of Age of Empires maker Ensemble Studios, has opened a new Dallas-based developer dedicated to making games for mobile devices and other emerging platforms. The new company, PeopleFun, is made up of other veterans from Ensemble, such as the defunct studio's former lead programmer Angelo Laudon and co-founder John Boog-Scott. They've worked on PeopleFun's first title, which is about to hit beta, since late 2011. Goodman describes PeopleFun's first project is as a departure, in terms of scope and genre, from the kind of games he made at Ensemble and Orcs Must Die developer Robot entertainment (another company he founded in Texas three years ago). Ensemble was best known for making real-time strategy titles like Age of Empires and Halo Wars.