Well the rumors have been squelched; Microsoft has confirmed that after the completion of their current project, Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios will be closing its doors. In a statement made to Gamespot:
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.
Which makes me ask why? Ensemble Studios has pushed out nothing but quality games for Microsoft since the original Age of Empires, sadly, Microsoft has nothing to say, at this time, concerning the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’. Microsoft did state that the studios “leadership team” will be creating a new studio and that entity will be supporting Halo Wars after its release next year.
Basically, what it means is that the creative team leads are striking it out on their own, to be like Bungie as a second party developer, and therefore get more bucks for its work while retaining Microsoft’s support.
(Thanks, GameSpot.)
