Developer Ensemble Studios, which is known for Age of Empires and is currently working on the upcoming RTS Halo Wars, will be closed following the completion of Halo Wars project. The game itself is slated to ship sometime in early 2009.

The story first broke in ShackNews, and has since been confirmed by Microsoft, which called the move a "fiscally-rooted decision." Apparently, part of the Ensemble team will go on to form a new studio to support the Halo Wars game and work on new projects. For those employees at Ensemble not moving to the new studio, Microsoft said that it will do what it can to assist these people in finding new jobs.

Here's the official explanation from Microsoft:

"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.

"The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars. This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble's talent or the quality of Halo Wars. In fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game.

"This was a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.

"As to our overall strategy at MGS, it remains the same. We are committed to growing MGS with world-class talent both internally and with our external partners around the globe. We have recently added some well-known developers to our team and will continue growing the team. We're particularly excited about the titles we have in the pipeline and continue to evaluate additional opportunities to bring incredible games to life with the industry's best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today."