Even though Ensemble Studios - a Microsoft-owned developer who is responsible for the Age of Empires series - is set to close soon, Phil Spencer, a general manager at Microsoft Game Studios, has revealed that the video game developer/publisher still intends to be a vital company in the industry.

"We're as invested in first party studios [as we ever have been], and when you look at the head count numbers - and these aren't things that we share - but we're investing in a big way behind key franchises for us.

"And I'll include Age in that - we're going to invest in Age of Empires in a way that makes sense for the future of how we view a Windows game should be deployed, sold and consumed.

"There's a scale, size and opportunity there that we want to go after and build. And we will do that. And the same thing's true across all our internal studios. I wouldn't say we're redeploying from internal to external resources - our investment in internal first party resources remains very strong."

Tyranitar24 via gamesindustry.biz »