This is really sad. A few weeks ago I was privileged enough to get a sneak peek at Ensemble’s new baby, Halo Wars. As a long time fan of the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology series I was excited to meet some of the producers behind these RTS gems.

Now I find out Microsoft is closing down Ensemble, and immediately laying off all employees not directly associated with Halo Wars. Microsoft did mention that the core Ensemble team will be transferred to a new studio, but failed to state why moving the Ensemble team to a newly created studio is a better idea than simply keeping Ensemble alive – beats me. They have described the move as ‘fiscally-rooted’ – Microsoft clearly well-known for its monetary problems. Snarkiness aside, I for one will be sad to see the departure of Ensemble, they’ve been around for over a decade and have always been a classy operation.

/salute Ensemble

Microsoft has issued a statement regarding the closure of Ensemble:

Microsoft has decided to close Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. After the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.

The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars. This decision does not reflect at all on Ensembles talent or the quality of Halo Wars. in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game.

This was a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.

As to our overall strategy at MGS, it remains the same. We are committed to growing MGS with world-class talent both internally and with our external partners around the globe. We have recently added some well-known developers to our team and will continue growing the team. Were particularly excited about the titles we have in the pipeline and continue to evaluate additional opportunities to bring incredible games to life with the industrys best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today.

source: shacknews