Ensemble Studios to Close After Halo Wars [UPDATE]
UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed that Ensemble Studios, after the release of Halo Wars next year, will infact close but the main core team at Ensemble Studios will assemble a new studio under Microsoft Games Studios. The full press release is after the original article and after the jump.
Original Story: It seems that comments from Microsoft are that they are looking to make at least 2 Halo games this generation expand to 3 maybe 4 are coming to fruitation.
We’ve already had Halo 3 and next year, we’ll have Halo Wars as well as hopefully Halo Chronicles, the rumored project by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, and maybe, just maybe, the new Bungie project being Halo 4 without a certain Spartan.
But the thing is, after one of those games is finished development, the studio behind Halo Wars could be done and closing.
According to ShackNews, they have various sources confirming that the Microsoft owned studio of Ensemble Studios, who are making the game as well as the studio behind Age of Empires for the PC,
will be closing their doors and closing down.
According to ShackNews, people who are not on the Halo Wars project have already been axed and shown the door while people who are on Halo Wars have been given incentives to stay on and complete Halo Wars.
Shacknews has contacted both Microsoft and Ensemble for contact but nothing has been given yet and are not commenting on the situation.
As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know.
Halo Wars is out next year for the Xbox 360.
Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, Non-essential Employees Already Axed [Shacknews]
[Microsoft Confirm the Closure of Ensemble Studios]
[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 industry’s best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today.]
