Ensemble, the famous developer responsible for the Age Of Empires series of strategy games on the PC is considering the development of a MMO game.

According to Executive Producer Patrick Hudson, they were wanting to do it ever since Ultima Online got released, but it was out of reach for them at the time. Now that Age Of Empires III has shipped, a small group of staff at the studio is constantly brainstorming around the concept, "a long long way from anything substantive (...) But it's fun to explore [the possibility]".

The studio has been attracted by World Of Warcraft's success, which has put confidence in them that putting 30 to 40 million dollars into a game like this is not as risky anymore as it was a few years ago.

While nothing concrete has been announced, Hudson hinted at a couple of things - first, it probably won't be a fantasy game, as "it seems like there are so many coming out", and secondly, their stance on monthly fees - and if interpreted in a certain way, it's kind of alarming:

"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."

We'll keep you posted.