The owner of Ensemble Studios and publisher of the upcoming Halo Wars has confirmed that Ensemble Studios will be closing down once work on the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo Wars title is complete. In a statement to GameSpot, Microsoft said that the closure of the Dallas-based studio “does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of Halo Wars,” adding that the team has made “invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games.”

Microsoft calls the choice “a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path.”

While Ensemble will see closure come launch date, the statement further explains that a “leadership team” from the studio will form a brand new development entity one that will continue to support Halo Wars post launch and work on unspecified Microsoft Game Studios titles.

read more »

Those fine folks over at Bungie have unveiled their latest addition for Halo 3 – Achievements. On top of that, Bungie talks about the next patch, affectionately called Title Update 2, and even the possibly-soon-to-be-released next map, Purple Reign Assembly map.

Smith points out that the included list of achievements aren’t all of the new ones coming with Title Update 2.

As folks have seen, these aren’t the only achievements we’re adding. But without proper context, there’s not a whole lot else we’re going to say. Stay tuned.

The update may slip as well, Smith points out, to closer to the Halo 3 one year anniversary. Now for those achievements which can be earned via the Legendary Maps and Halo 3 Campaign: read more »

Stuart Beattie loves Halo so much, that he just won’t stop with his movie script based on Eric Nylund’s book, Halo: The Fall of Reach. Oh No. He just makes sure more and more concept art makes it out in the hands of the fans. Beattie wrote the script between film projects on the hopes that someone somewhere will bring it to the silver screen. Unfortunately, so far, it’s still only a spec, but making the studio rounds in Hollywood.
Hit the jump for a high resolution image.
read more »