Microsoft may have announced plans yesterday to shut down Ensemble Studios when Halo Wars ships, but Age of Empires fans are told not to worry!

"I want to reassure you that Microsoft will still own the Age of Empires intellectual property," Games for Windows boss Kevin Unangst wrote on Gamerscoreblog overnight. So that's alright then.

"As a company, we're very excited about the future potential for Age of Empires, and as a PC gamer I'm looking forward to what that future holds. Stay tuned," he concluded.

Microsoft yesterday said its decision to close down Ensemble Studios, which it bought in 2001 on the strength of the PC Age of Empires series, was "a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps [Microsoft Game Studios] on its growth path".

The Xbox corporation said it would try and re-home as many jobless Ensemble veterans as possible and that the Dallas dev's "leadership team" would form a new studio to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars and work on other MGS titles.