Before I begin, how many of you are in line to buy Halo Wars? Well, whether you want to get it because it's Halo, or not get it...because it's Halo, I'm getting it for two reasons. One is that it looks pretty sweet, and it would nice to try an RTS that focuses more on combat than resource management, and the other reason is because Halo Wars is actually Ensemble Studios last game.

[link]

Apparently, M$ doesn't have enough money to support all of the Ensemble guys, that, and Microsoft really doesn't care about PC focused titles anymore (but hey, who doesn't now a days) so they decided to shut down Ensemble, and 50% of the employees have made a new studio, which oddly enough will be supported by Microshits gaming studios.

Now for some of those who don't know who Ensemble is, they made the smash hit PC RTS, Age of Empires, which would receive two sequels, and a spin off RTS that focuses on creatures and gods of ancient myth.

Funny how I took this studio for granted, because I LOVED Age of Empires 1, and it's sequel The age of kings when growing up. Sad that I never got a chance to play AoE3, and Age of Mythology, but I look those titles sooner or later. It's also sad that I never knew that Ensemble studios lived right next to me (We both live in Dallas Texas) so if they were still around, I would have applied for a job there...oh it's so unfair how the world works.

Age of Empires, IMO, was more fun to play than Starcraft and Warcraft, and it was that, and Total Annihilation, that got me into knowing RTS games. It was also niffty that in order to work for Ensemble, you had to play a table top game...now how many developers do that?

Sorry bout going on like that, anyway you can find out more about this once great studio in a few links.

[link] <---Gamasutra visits Ensemble Studios one last time

[link] <---Age of Ensemble: a history of Ensemble

Also, if anybody has never played Age of Empires 1 or 2, then what the hell are you doing reading this? Go get a collection pack with both games, and see why this studio, along with the game series did great. They're not shutting down because Halo Wars will suck, in fact, I hear it plays great, it's that Micro$oft doesn't have enough money to support any of there future projects.

Although the studio is shutting down, all is not lost. I'm looking forward to the new studio, plus a few people are still going to support online play for Age of Empires 3, so be happy bout that.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Look forward to Halo wars in March, and if anybody has an Xbox 360 with live support, you can download the demo coming this Friday (Next week for silver subscribers) To leave this journal entry, I'll quote from Tony Goodman.

"I think I said it at the first, and I really believe it -- from the very beginning we've always said, 'The mission of our company is to make a great place to work... and to make great games.' We'd always say it in that order."

Farewell Ensemble, and thanks for all the fond memories.