Ensemble Studios 1995-2009

[Praxil]

Ensemble Studios to close down...

Microsoft has decided to close Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. After the closure, the Ensemble 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.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=20167


Seeing strategy games developer going down isn't that nice to me. There aren't that many of them anyway. Quality strategy games coming out in a year are from 1-2, in good years maybe even close to 5 new titles excluding expansions.

[TB666]

No biggie for me.
Sure they made AoE 2 but the rest of their stuff hasn't be that good.
AoE 1 was ok
AoE 2 was excellent
AoM was charming but average
And AoE 3 was crap.
Halo wars doesn't look very special.

And besides they are forming another studio anyway so really it's more a name change.

[rajpoot]

This is sad...........these guys made my one time favourite series after all.........well well, I guess Age of Empires was their mainstay......now that they've exhausted that......still, it is sad.

Edit : TB666, what studio is that?

[Warmaster Horus]

Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio

That's the studio, I guess.
Still a bit sad... AoE II was my first serious form of gaming. I spent literally hours just with the demo. Imagine the days I spent with the full game...

[CrossLOPER]

I was under the impression that they were going to continue on with the AoE series with two other titles. Oh well, maybe someone else might take a whack at it.

[lars573]

Good. Now maybe a new AOE game will not be the same thing from 1996 with new graphics. I have little interest in Halo Wars because Ensemble is developing it.