Ensemble’s Shelley Hints At Two New Studios

As Ensemble Studios (Halo Wars) closes its doors for good, co-founder Bruce Shelley is hinting that at least two new studios will be formed by former employees. Microsoft announced the closure of the company, previously best known for the Age of Empires series, in September of last year in a "fiscally-rooted decision". Following the completion of the soon-to-be-released Halo Wars, Shelley wrote a final entry in his company blog. As he thanked staff and fans, Shelley also indicated that there were "at least two new studios being formed by ES employees and I expect both to do very well." "There were a lot of outstanding game developers here and it will be interesting to see how and what they do, both individually and as new groups, in the years ahead," wrote Shelley. Microsoft itself revealed the creation of a new studio led by the "Ensemble leadership team", during the original announcement of the closure. Although no further details have yet been provided, the new studio was then described as "providing ongoing support for Halo Wars as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios." Shelley appears to refer to this new studio in his comments, stating that: "One of the new companies being started by ES employees will be picking up support for [PC online matching service for Ensemble's games] ES Online (and Halo Wars)." No further hints were given as to the nature of the other studio mentioned by Shelley, or whether it would be as closely tied to Microsoft Game Studios.