Microsoft has reaffirmed their ownership of the Age of Empires franchise in the wake of today's closure of the Halo Wars developer, Ensemble Studios. It seems that in the future, MS will be using the AoE license to make some new titles, and the staff left from Ensemble will be working on it.

"If you’re a PC gamer, you’ve likely played some version of Age of Empires somewhere along the line. I want to reassure you that Microsoft will still own the Age of Empires intellectual property,"

According to Bloomberg, the sales of the Xbox360 have almost doubled since the price cut was announced. Retailers reported a 100% increase in sales for all models as compared with the previous weekend, MS claims in an e-mailed statement. Once we have some solid numbers we will bring them to you.

Despite the comments made this morning by the CEO of Wild Tangent, Microsoft's Robbie Bach says that the demand for the Xbox360 hardware has not diminished at all. Speaking to Reuters from a promotional event, Bach claimed that despite worldwide economic issues, Xbox, Windows Mobile, and the Zune player's business have seen no significant decrease, at least not yet.

This ties in to our last news item, but here is the official separate, confirmation. Microsoft is indeed closing down Ensemble Studios, the Halo Wars developer, after the game's release. This is in order to reform the group into one developer which will support HW, as well as some other new projects.

The CEO of Wild Tangent claims that both Sony and MS will continue to close internal studios as the companies both strive to turn a profit. Speaking with GI, St. John said that MS themselves were "ramping down" the XBox360 investments, to enter what he called a "recovery phase." Our guess is it also has something to do with the next Xbox hardware in development, but that is just speculation from us at this point.

"You will clearly see Sony and Microsoft ramping down their investment in those platforms... What's interesting to note is that Microsoft [Game] Studios: the number of titles they're producing is in decline. So they're investing a lot less in the Xbox, and Sony is doing the same, because they're in a cost recovery phase," he said.

MS today announced the XBox Live Film Club. This new service will deliver sneak preview screenings of upcoming new movies to a select group of Xbox gamers in an exclusive setting. This gives them the chance to see the movies before anyone else. This is certainly something we need to hear more about, click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 5th September 2008 – Xbox today announces a unique initiative that will enable entertainment fans to see some of the most anticipated new movies before their theatrical release.

Julie Han of Sony's Corporate Communications Division told Gamasutra that while MS will see a lift in sales due to the Xbox360 price cuts, Sony is unconcerned because it is not sustainable in the long term. She maintains that consumers will realize that even though the PS3 is more expensive, it offers a much better value in the long view.

"We'll obviously see the natural lift [in sales] with the price cut -- but how sustainable is that in the long term? We're really confident that consumers are making choices driven by value," she says, "and we know PS3 offers that value across the board, with the built-in Blu-ray player the broadest and deepest software lineup in the industry, with LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm [Pacific Rift]... we're quite confident our holiday sales will be good."

We all know about the Xbox360 price cuts by now, but here is the official press release info from Microsoft. That $199 price is going to sell a lot of hardware, we think.

PRESS RELEASE

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 3, 2008 — Imagine if friends and families had the ability to instantly watch movies from Netflix, live out their musical fantasies through “Rock Band 2” (Harmonix/MTV Games) and “Lips” (iNiS Corp./Microsoft Game Studios), star in their own Hollywood classics with “You’re in the Movies,” or have the power to never miss the latest episode of “Heroes” — all from one device, starting at $199.1 That device is Xbox 360, and Microsoft Corp. today announced it will offer the gaming and entertainment console, which offers the leading Xbox LIVE service, at a new low price in the United States. Beginning Sept. 5, Xbox 360 Arcade will retail for the estimated retail price of $199.99, the Xbox 360 console for $299.99 and Xbox 360 Elite for $399.99.

Tomorrow is a triple header for the Xbox Live Arcade, folks. We have Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, Shred Nebula, and Gin Rummy. On top of that there is new DLC for Poker Smash, apparently. It is going to be an expensive MS points day, it seems. Check the link for the game details.

Microsoft has announced price cuts for the Xbox360 console in Japan to go along with the price cuts here in the USA. The price cuts in Japan are around 30%, with the lowest bundle, the Arcade SKU, to be sold for 19,800 Yen (182 USD). This should help MS build up sales a bit more overseas.