The news came down a few weeks ago, but I have not been in a mood to write about it until now.

On September 9th 2008, the staff of Ensemble Studios was notified by Microsoft that at the end of the Halo Wars project they would be shutting the studio down.

*boggle*

I was expecting some sort of slimming down, but never a complete shutdown. The ES management has a new startup planned and are bringing on some of the current staff, but with their limited funds they can not bring everyone. Then since MS wants their cake but not overpay for it, the first project that new company has will be to support HW. *sad chuckle*

All this means for me, is I am now searching for new employment. Ideally I would love to continue working in the game industry here in Dallas or Austin. Following that I am at a torn between moving to stay in the industry, or changing industries to stay here. I guess it all depends on what God wants for me, and what offers show up.

The worst part is the fact that I really like the people I work with everyday, and am going to hate the fact that we are going to be split apart. Oh well, time for me to move forward, but I don’t have to like it.