Microsoft to close Ensemble after Halo Wars and start new developement house
Sep 10th, 2008 by admin
Submitted by videogame2play
Confirmation has come fast in regard to rumors surfacing earlier today that Microsoft would be closing its internal developer Ensemble Studios upon the completion of sci-fi real-time strategy game Halo Wars. In a statement issued today, Microsoft confirmed that Ensemble will be shut down once the Xbox 360-exclusive RTS set in the best-selling Halo franchise ships out early next year.
“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,” the publisher said in a statement. “This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s 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.”
Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today’s statement, Microsoft said that Ensemble’s “leadership team” will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with the publisher to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, “as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.”
Commenting on the reason for the closure, Microsoft said, “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.”
It is rumored that this move by Microsoft Game Studios is a cleaning of house of sorts in preparation an upcoming purchase and/or exclusive arangement with a large game publisher.
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