Apparently shacknews has gotten a major tip off on the closure of Ensemble studios, the developer behind the much-anticipated Halo 3, and the critically acclaimed Age of Empires series.

According to their sources, non-essential staff not involved in Halo Wars were laid-off today, while essential Halo Wars staff were offered incentives to stay until the game is published.

Linky

It certainly seems like M$ doesn't have many plans to remain in videogame software development for much longer.

Doesnt seem very believable, considering the success Ensemble has had and the fact that they dont note a reliable source. Magic 8Ball says: Wait and see.

Ensemble is closing down ? No way . Atleast i hope so ..

immortaldanmx


Doesnt seem very believable, considering the success Ensemble has had and the fact that they dont note a reliable source. Magic 8Ball says: Wait and see.

Pretty much.

Although, it wouldn't exactly come as a surprise if Microsoft shut down most of their inhouse operations. They fucked up big time with their acquisition of Rare - to the tune of $380 million. They learned shortly afterwards that you can buy the IP but not the talent. Their swift move to buying exclusivity from 3rd party deveopers has paid off in volumes and is likely to be the way they go forward now.

They let Bungie go their own way and they let Bizarre go to Activision and yet they still own the Halo and Project Gotham IP's. It's just a smarter business model at this point.

Confirmed -> Gamespot

It seems that MS is going the way nitro said but what about the first party devs ? They still own the Ips but they are loosing quality developers . I guess MS knows more about business than me so i need to stfu ..

At this point it is better, back when they bought rare it gave many consumers a boost of confidence because they were still relatively unknown in the console market, that stage is over.