Cheats-Area.com

Ensemble will be closed by Microsoft – that’s the raw, direct announcement recently made by the (bigger) company. But it seems that the consequences of such an industry shift are not so dire for the games we desire (nice rhyme, huh?). At least, that’s the impression we get upon reading the appeasing statements made by Microsoft’s vice-president, Shane Kim.

First of all, Ensemble Studios will close as late as 2009; this announcement was made now because: “We wanted to give the employees as much notice of the decision as possible...We are committed to helping them through this transition.”

And the assistance provided by Microsoft goes beyond that; the leading hearts and minds of Ensemble will form a new studio as soon as the old one will be closed. This new game development kingdom won’t be in Microsoft’s borders any longer, but Shane Kim says that “we will have an ongoing relationship with that new company”. One of the priorities of the future Ensemble will be to offer post-release support for Halo Wars.

Also, Mr. Kim bids us not to worry, because Microsoft doesn’t intend to lose Age of Empires, of which  Ensemble Studios used to be responsible. “It is not losing Age of Empires itself. We’re still super excited for the potential for the franchise. The Windows gaming world continues to evolve, and we believe in the future of that property.”

So things aren’t so bad as gamers feared they might be. Which is rare in this kind of studio-closing situations.

Source: Edge