In a surprising and disheartening move for real-time strategy gamers everywhere, Microsoft announced that it would be closing down genre powerhouse Ensemble Studios after work is finished on the upcoming Halo universe RTS extension, Halo Wars. After 14 years of development history and a collection of critically-acclaimed games including the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology series, the closing of Ensemble is "a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path." Despite closing, Ensemble will finish Halo Wars and see it released.

"Today, we shared with our employees at Ensemble that we have plans to close the studio after Halo Wars RTM." said Microsoft Game Studios leader Phil Spencer. "Such a decision is never easy. Like any business, we're accountable for making tradeoffs and the right level of investments that will drive profit and future growth...it became clear to us that closing the studio and redeploying those resources to other more scalable ventures is the right thing for our business at this time."

Xbox 360 exclusive RTS Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios and Microsoft Game Studios.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for some of the Ensemble Studio leaders. Spencer also said that after Halo Wars is completed and released, several of the Ensemble leadership will "form a new entity and have agreed to partner with Microsoft to develop future products and provide support for Halo Wars post launch." So while the Ensemble name is dead for now (Apogee-like revival, anyone?), we can hope to see new titles from some of the guys responsible for some old favorites.

Despite the news, Halo Wars is still expected to hit store shelves in the first quarter of 2009.

Join our discussion on this topic