Ensemble Studios to close its doors, Halo Wars will remain unaffected

by Dustin Burg { Sep 10th 2008 at 1:30AM }

In a shocking announcement made late last night, Microsoft confirmed rumors that Age of Empires and Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios will be shut down as soon as work on Halo Wars is completed. An astonishing decision Microsoft claims to be one that is "fiscally rooted". Wowzaz!

In Microsoft's official statement to the media, Ensemble Studios' closure is addressed, mentioning that after completion of Halo Wars, the "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." Microsoft also makes it clear that they'll "place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft" and insists that the studio's closure has nothing to do with "Ensembles talent or the quality of Halo Wars."

What can be said? How random, how unexpected and how troubling it is to hear this news. News that we never would have seen coming. From our early experience with Halo Wars and the Age of Empires franchise, the level of talent the entire Ensemble crew possess is more than apparent as we wish them all the best with their future endeavors.

Tags: ensemble, ensemble-studios, halo-wars, microsoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kamal @ Sep 10th 2008 1:44AM

I wonder what they will call the new studio, Ensemble Studios Deux?

muffinmanlan @ Sep 10th 2008 2:07AM

I am shocked. They need to make an entirely new studio? Halo wars would of got them out of any money problems.

MaxB @ Sep 10th 2008 2:37AM

Well not exactly. RTS? Niche, sadly. Oh and there's this game called Starcraft 2 coming out.

David W @ Sep 10th 2008 2:11AM

Nooooo...there aren't that many cool developers in the Dallas area to begin with :(

Magic Whiskey @ Sep 10th 2008 2:51AM

My theory is that Ensemble Studios owes a guy named Bobby 'No Thumbs' Titagliano fifty large from off-track betting and the company just can't ante up.

gnik eltrut @ Sep 10th 2008 3:36AM

Did someone say "ante up?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21OH0wlkfbc&feature=related

ryan @ Sep 10th 2008 3:23AM

so what does this mean for possible Halowars DLC/expansions?

GalileoAce @ Sep 10th 2008 10:31AM

Exactly what I was pondering...

ownage4dummys @ Sep 10th 2008 3:05AM

I am seriously CRUSHED, to read this, I have loved all of Ensembles games and Have memories playing age of empires for the last 10 years, I was really hoping that Halo Wars would finally bring the respect and recognition to the RTS genre that it deserves, but with this news the future is uncertain now, I cannot believe this.... I truly think that the Collapse of PC gaming has taken its toll and hit Ensemble, even though the Age series sold well, the Genre and platform are Dead.... leaving me to wonder even if they create a new studio what games could they possibly make? I guess we'll never see Age of empires 4

mike @ Sep 10th 2008 3:06AM

and BTW i realize Halo Wars is still coming out but now there is truly no incentive for Ensemble.... RIP

BobTheElephant @ Sep 10th 2008 3:18AM

I don't even like RTS games but I must say, this is quite surprising...I can't believe that something like this just happened so seemingly randomly.

Boff @ Sep 10th 2008 4:28AM

This IS surprising. I thought Ensemble Studios were doing ok since they seemed to carve out their own little chunk of the RTS world.

Hope it's not as big a surprise for all their employees, and wish them well.

SadisticHam @ Sep 10th 2008 4:59AM

Good, after the suckage that was age of empires 3 they've had there time. Thanks for ruining AOE, 1 and 2 where so awesome.

mattclarkie @ Sep 10th 2008 5:23AM

I am definately getting Halo Wars at launch now.

I am suprised MS didn't buy ensemble and make them part of Microsoft Games, they could have used them for both PC and Xbox dev. Unless Ensemble didn't want to be part of MS Games.

DHalo @ Sep 10th 2008 7:12AM

They already were a part of MS Games. That's how MS was able to shut them down.

MongerKing @ Sep 10th 2008 7:59AM

Why do people always wish others the best in their future endeavors? Sure, it's the polite and decent thing to do, but it's just so damn boring. Just think of the fun you could have if you cursed their names and declared that you wish them nothing but failure and misfortune! I bet saying that would even increase your traffic, thus increasing the revenue you get from advertising. You really can't afford to wish them anything more than the worst.

Yamikotai @ Sep 11th 2008 11:51AM

You, sir, deserve a million cookies or more for attempting laughicide on me ^_^

ExMcloud @ Sep 10th 2008 9:13AM

Ok that just made me happy....I need that game!!!!!

Urza @ Sep 10th 2008 9:29AM

Halo destroys every study it touches!

Gemini Ace @ Sep 10th 2008 9:53AM

Feels like Shadowrun all over again.

Doll @ Sep 11th 2008 3:39PM

Exactly. We're probably going to have bugs/glitches that won't be fixed and it will kill the game.

Dralthi @ Sep 10th 2008 10:27AM

I hope this doesn't affect the final product of Halo Wars. I hope they still put everything they've got into it.

dmb360 @ Sep 10th 2008 11:57AM

I'm sure this ongoing title "support" will be as good as Shadowrun, patch it once and then run for the hills.

Plus, I can only imagine how hard people will work to finish the title. Makes one wonder how well this game will be polished when the employees heard you're out of a job, if I was told I was being fired in a few months I don't think I would be going for employee of the month anymore.

Rick @ Sep 11th 2008 8:18AM

Well, according to the article, none of them are really out of a job. Some people will be forming a new studio, and everybody else is being placed in positions at Microsoft.

dmb360 @ Sep 10th 2008 11:59AM

Procris @ Sep 10th 2008 12:38PM

I love Ensemble as game developers and this is a great shame that such a notable dev is going to be lost in a cooperate shuffle.

That being said, how can Halo Wars not be affected by this? With people fearing they will lose their jobs, moral is going to hit rock bottom..

However! I do understand that in businesses, you need to re-organise your staff and resources from time to time in order to get better efficiency, something a lot of people on the internet fail to realise. I don't think now was the best time to do it but obviously they did.

I wish everyone at Ensemble best of luck in this difficult situation, especially if they won't be one of the people re-hired.