The extremely popular developer Ensemble studios is closing. The news comes after confirmation from an unnamed source over at Kotaku sent them notice.  The source said that Shane Kim, the VP of Microsoft visited the studios to deliver the bad news.  If you hadn’t known Ensemble has been working on the much anticipated title Halo Wars, and has also worked on very popular games like Age of Empires III, and Age of Mythology.

Not only is it a sad day for the developer, but it’s also a strange move on Microsofts part.  As stated earlier, the company has worked on some big titles, so it comes as a big surprise that they’re closing.  Maybe we’ll know more when Microsoft releases an official statement.

Normally I wouldn’t post something so sappy, but with all the DRM issues and complaints on Amazon.com about Spore, I had to at least download the creature creator and try it out.  Well I made a couple different creations so far and they’re just so darn cute I had to share them with you…. Well cute in a really freaky way that is.

Remember that Aliens video I had posted here?  Welllllll they asked me to pull it.  The e-mail conversation went a little something like this.

To The Daily DL staff,

We would like to formally request that the Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer be taken down from your site effective immediately. We are requesting this due to the unauthorized method of distribution for the trailer. We will be officially launching this trailer soon and would be happy to include your site on the distribution list for this and other assets as they become available. Please email me with any questions you may have.

**Denny Chiu**

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Hello Denny,

I recorded this at the Gearbox Launch Party that took place in Dallas Texas.  I was registered as press, and recorded footage while I was there.  There was no indication that I was not supposed to capture footage.

I’m just wondering why I’m being asked to remove the content now?

Destin

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Hi Destin,

We always prefer to distribute trailer assets in digital form to our press partners because there’s no degradation in video and sound quality that way. We were unaware that Gearbox was allowing video filming at their party and are now in the process of asking those who posted the trailer via handy-cam shooting to take the videos down. As stated in my earlier email, we’re working on sending out the trailer in official fashion soon, with no degradation in video quality. I’m sure your readers would like to see the trailer with HD quality graphics and sound, and that’s what we’d like to provide themJ Let me know if you have any other questions, and I thank you ahead of time for your cooperation.

Denny

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So being the nice guy I am I decided to remove the video.  Hopefully they release it sooner than later because it looks freaking sweet!

This is a pretty cool vid I found over at Destructoid. A guy hacked his 360 chat pad and was able to use it on his PSP. How freaking cool is that?

Hey I know the site may look a little bit f-ed up, but thats just because our web guy is going through the code and breaking a bunch of stuff.  I figured I would give him a plug while he works on the site.

http://www.wearedesigners.ca

Keep up the good work Gibbous.  As for all our readers, we plan to have some more blogs up pretty darn soon.  Oh and OMG our video was featured on Kotaku!

http://kotaku.com/5046404/aliens-colonial-marines-teaser-trailer

*edit* removed at Segas request

Hey I think we got an exclusive. Aliens Colonial Marines at the Gearbox Party. Does this mean they’re not working on Halo 4?

Hey, we decided to check out the Gearbox Launch Party and party it up with some other gamers in Dallas Texas. If you want to know what you missed, then check it out!