Microsoft has released a statement detailing the fact that the developer Ensemble Studios, which is wholly owned by the software company, would be closed down after it finishes work on Halo Wars, the real time strategy that pits the UNSC against the Covenant troops.

Ensemble was founded way back in 1995 and it is headquartered in Dallas. The Age of Empires franchise, which spawned three stand alone PC games, a series of expansions and a DS spin off, is the biggest hit that the studio has worked on. Microsoft acquired Ensemble in 2001. The latest Age of Empire game, the third in the series, sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and was praised by critics for the way it managed to keep an old franchise fresh.

The statement from Microsoft says that “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”.

So, it seems that most of the important people will remain connected to Microsoft and will continue to develop games for the company, although it’s unclear what will happen to the other employees of the studios.

In the second part of the statement, Microsoft moves on to praising how well its gaming division is doing, with such empty words like “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”.

Ensemble still has work to do on Halo Wars, which is at the moment the only game set in the universe inhabited by Master Chief. The game was expected during fall, but it now seems that early 2009 is a safer bet for the release date.