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Rumor: Halo Wars Dev Ensemble Shutting Down, Non-essential Employees Already Axed (Updated)
by Nick Breckon, Sep 09, 2008 1:52pm PDTUpdate: Microsoft has confirmed its plans to close Ensemble.
Original Story: Shacknews has learned via multiple independent reports that developer Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) will shut down operation following the release of its upcoming title Halo Wars.
According to sources, employees not associated with Halo Wars have been laid off today. Those attached to Halo Wars have been offered incentives to stay on the project until completion.
Halo Wars, an RTS based on the Halo franchise, was announced in September of 2006. The Xbox 360 title is currently slated for release sometime in the first half of 2009.
Ensemble Studios was founded in 1995. The Microsoft-owned company is best known for the Age of Empires series of RTS games.
Shacknews has contacted both Microsoft and Ensemble for comment, but has not yet received a reply.
Comments
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It just shows how much BS all the GFW nonsense is. MS is simply throwing everything they have at 360, if something doesn't suit 360 they just throw it into the trash can. From any logical perspective there's no reason to close Ensemble, they're one of the biggest and most successful PC devs of all time and AoE4 would once again be multimillion seller... but on PC, it wouldn't stand a chance on 360.
THis is the same thing that happened with Access last gen, Links was huge on PC, but it didn't work on 360, so instead of going back to PC MS just threw it away,
I just hope the new studio will stay away as far asa they can from MS, aside from doing HW support. Bassicaly every publisher will be glad to sign them to work on what they do the best: PC historical RTSes
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The Halo franchise is past its peak anyway. Master Chief is on a downwards slope. It's time for something new to take its place. All these Halo spinoffs that are in the works are more likely to cheapen the brand than envigour it.
I loved Age2, Age of Mythology and Age3.
I still play Age3.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRARRRRRRRRRRAR
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Maybe this is just a sign that Halo Wars is turning out to be a giant turd, and MS wants to wash their hands of it?
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And to think that its last game will be that POS Halo RTS for consoles... How the mighty have fallen.
(have I said FUCK YOU, MICROSOFT! already?)
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* He was working QA at Visual Concepts when they shut down internal QA.
* He was working at Lucasarts when they shut down internal development.
* He was three weeks into working at Flagship's subsidiary Ping0 when Flagship closed.
He's lost his job three times this year, each a mass firing. It sucks, because he's a damn clever tech-head and none of it's been his fault. Anyone in the Bay Area want to hire an excellent QA/IT guy?
Makes me quite grateful for my company keeping me around for five years, and even I've had a layoff scare in that time. If I didn't love this industry, I sure wouldn't be thinking about trying to support a family with it in the near future.
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