It’s a sad day in the games industry – especially for fans of real time strategy games, since Ensemble Studios is shutting its doors, as studio’s co-founder Bruce Shelly announced in his last blog entry. The studio has just finished working on Halo Wars and Shelly announced that, despite the closure, the website will still stay up to offer Halo Wars support and updates. Also, he announced that the AoE community site will also stay up.

In the goodbye letter, Bruce Shelly wrote: “We are working our way through the final week with mixed emotions. We have a lot to be proud of and new opportunities are beckoning, but it is also sad to see this particular great adventure coming to an end. Boxes are piled in the hallways for trash; people are giving away games and other stuff they don’t want anymore; computers are being wiped; and our corporate IDs are being turned in. Although we will be keeping in touch through some alumni initiatives, many of us may not cross paths again.”

However, he announced that “at least” two new studios are being formed by the Ensemble staff, so it’s not all lost and we might still get our share of quality RTS (and no only!) from them. We wish them luck and thank them for the memories!