George_Wrisley September 10, 2008 Features, Xbox 360 0 views Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

It has been confirmed that Microsoft is going to close Ensemble Studios after the release of Halo Wars. We are “reassured” that this does not imply anything negative about Halo Wars:

“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.”

Apparently a lucky “leadership team” from Ensemble will remain on board with Microsoft, providing support for Halo wars and working on other projects. As to why 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.”

Good luck to all of those “being placed.” While this may just be the result of fiscal pragmatism, it doesn’t give me the best feeling for Halo Wars. From what I’ve seen so far, and as a big Halo fan, that game looks incredible . It’s just that psychologically, employees/developers/programmers/etc., may not be able to give it their all in the remaining months knowing that Ensemble will close. And that may be the case even if they feel Halo Wars is their baby and needs to be the best it can be.

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