The guys over at Gamasutra broke this story earlier today. Ensemble Studios, makers of the Age of Empires games, as well as numerous other titles, will be closing their doors after they finish production on Halo Wars in the near future. This comes with a secondary, and although less shoking, tragic announcement that their unreleased project was a Halo MMO. The Gamasutra link above shows screenshots of the as-of-yet uncompleted MMO and how close they were to an actual possible beta.

Most of those reading this will look back and remember playing the Age of Empires games with fond memories, and the shock that a company such as this would be forced to shut down is unnerving at best. And the news that we may have to wait even longer for a Halo MMO is every more of a blow to the gaming community. One can only hope that another company is able to pick up the mantle and move on with this project, lest it die out.