Canceled Ensemble project was Halo MMO

by Ross Miller { Sep 23rd 2008 at 10:31AM }

With Ensemble now disbanded, Gamasutra reveals one of its big projects that never saw the light of day: a Halo MMO. According to various reports, it appears that the game was in development for some time during 2006 and 2007 before being canceled. Seen above, a shot of the UI and an action pose of a Spartan duel-wielding. The design, from what little we can see of it, borrows a lot from World of Warcraft's simplicity and (judging by the dual-wield screenshot) hokeyness.

We understand there are reasons for cancellations, but this seems like a money printer on par with Pokémon and Blizzard's aforementioned MMO, regardless of quality. As Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently mentioned to GamesIndustry.biz, there are "more than two or three teams" working on Halo projects at the moment, so the MMO concept might not be entirely dead.

Tags: breakingnews, bungie, ensemble, halo, halo-mmo

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Battledrill @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:41AM

If this is legit, get ready for an onslaught of bring back petitions.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Sep 23rd 2008 6:42PM

I thought you wrote pokemons, for which I'm still waiting an MMO.

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:41AM

Typo time!

"cancelltions" is an obvious one.

"there are more two or three teams working on Halo projects at the moment, so the MMO concept might be entirely dead."

Correction 1: "two or three more teams"
Correction 2: OK, maybe you actually did mean what you said, but judging by context, I'm going to assume you meant the concept might *not* be entirely dead.

Ross Miller @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:52AM

Typo fixing time :)

Jakka(A tribute to whose who fought and failed during the Epic Flamewar of L.A. Noir) @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:53AM

Sum ppl hav dyslxia u speling natze!

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:13AM

So I try to help the guy and I get pwnvoted?

borland502 (SDF Macross) @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:49AM

"So I try to help the guy and I get pwnvoted?"

Heh, I wager it's because there are usually two goals to such an attempt: (1) Correcting an editor's mistake and (2) Letting everyone know you corrected the editor's mistake.

I think you were down voted on the basis of #2. Adopting a school marm tone whilst correcting doesn't help either.

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:04PM

Well, I apologize if my message and tone seemed condescending or humiliating. I don't know that sending a correction via e-mail would be any more efficient, so I do what I can here.

Suppose we'll ever get a private messaging system of any sort?

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:16PM

I'm calling you mr corrector ¬_¬

tikiman @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:44AM

Wow, my initial reaction was that this was fake and i actually reacted by checking the date for the april 1st before i could stop myself =D

zuburi @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:25PM

I was thinking something similar while looking at the screenshots - "this'd make a pretty funny April Fool's joke!"

Dirty @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:44AM

I think they made the right decision in canceling this.

343 Guilty Fart @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:55PM

Speaking as a huge Halo fan... I completely agree.

theturtle363 @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:23PM

i agree, a cartoonified version of Halo would just suck, not to mention they difficult transition from fast paced FPS action to simplified D&D type RPG stuff

Lurker28 @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:56PM

@theturtle363

Lulz, Halo is a pretty plastic/cartoonish looking world. There is nothing realistic or hyper realistic about Halo 1-3. My biggest reason for this is because of the color palette they use are not found in nature and if they are, they are rarer colors (bright violets and purples and neon colors).

I have played very few games recently that I would consider "realistic" or not cartoonish. The Witcher, Call of Duty 4 are just some of them.

theturtle363 @ Sep 23rd 2008 6:09PM

maybe for Halo 3, but 1 and 2 had rather bland and desaturated color palettes. I suppose I could have avoided your post if I just used "more" which is something you probably should have assumed anyway

peteH @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:45AM

And the whole internet breathed a collective sigh of relief.

NO MORE MMOs.

Shagittarius @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:43AM

Sorry you don't like MMOs.

We need MORE MMOs, just not cookie cutter MMOs.

Linkman2004 @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:54AM

We need more FREE MMOs not made by Koreans. :P

WRE @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:46AM

Maybe Peter Jackson wants to make an MMO called HaLord of the Rings and this was conflicting.

FSK405K @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:47AM

seeing those screens I feel a little bit of bile coming up into my mouth.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread) @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:48AM

"but this seems like a money printer on par with Pokemon"

really? i mean i dont have the numbers for either but that statement just seems suspect to me. just cause it says Halo doesnt necessarily mean it will be great. there have been plenty bad Pokemon spinoffs. correct me if im wrong.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread) @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:49AM

and this is going to sound like im eating sour grapes, but how is this breaking news?

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:03AM

Whether certain Pokemon titles are good or not, nearly all of them are sure-fire money makers for Nintendo. Ross wasn't commenting on quality, only sales power.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread) @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:26AM

no you missed my point. i was basically trying to question Halo's spinoff moneymaking prowess. to the best of my knowledge, Halo Wars will be the first spinoff that steps out of the traditional Halo genre, so Halo is kinda unproven in that regard.

you know what. i dont really know what my point was. i think the fanboy within just got a little riled up at the sight of the word Halo. lol dont worry, ill put him away now.

Hot$auce_Magik @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:48AM

Indeed, Merely mentioning the word "Halo" gets pretty much every boy between the ages of 7 and 15 to pitch a tent.

World of Warcraft has a similar effect. Put the 2 together and you can use the beloved "IT PRINTS MONEY!!!" picture again.

Source: My girlfriend has been a 4th-6th grade teacher over the past few years and nearly all "what I did this weekend/vacation" journal entries she has assigned come back with the words Halo or WoW in them, many times both. ( Its just sad that as a 25 year old man, I know exactly what they are talking about, and usually I have to translate for her)

dark_inchworm @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:08PM

Yeah, I later realized that I missed your point.

Then I got lazy.

mr nimblewick @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:49AM

If they had made it an MMOFPS maybe, but the world does not need another WoW clone.

Sephiroth X @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:38AM

Why not? Id rather play a sci-fi WOW then the current WOW, I think alot of sci fi fans would enjoy this over a medival piece of crap.

bld @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:24PM

*cough* *cough* Tabula Rasa *ahem*

FSK405K @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:22PM

And Tabula Rasa would have been the greatest game in years IF 1) you didn't spend most of your time collecting hearts and ears and whatever of whatever stupid creatures were on infinite respawn, or moving people's love notes around, and if 2) they had instituted an instance system so that all quests were Doom-like coop mayhem havens.

riggs @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:49AM

looks like a WoW halo mod.

eldee @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:52AM

I actually thought it was WoW at first.. same color palette, same UI (basically), etc..

Wiinterfang @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:50AM

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGG thank you sweet Jesus :).

Antman @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:48AM

No no no, not ARG, MMO!

LiqwidZero @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:51AM

A Halo RPG would've sucked ass.

Dralthi @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:59AM

Dear Lord please let this stay dead and buried. A Halo MMO would've sucked total ass.

Glad to see they haven't jumped on the lame MMO bandwagon...yet.

WRE @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:12AM

Go to hell, you energy sucking son of a bitch!

Riley @ Sep 24th 2008 2:13AM

but the point is, they did jump on the mmo wagon, didn't you read the article?

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:00AM

If this was really cancelled for good then maybe there is a god out there. Besides, the halo crowd doesn't want to play WoW..they want to shoot things. Stick with what you know Microsoft.

Jakka(A tribute to whose who fought and failed during the Epic Flamewar of L.A. Noir) @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:02AM

Halo MMO would suck ass since everybody would just play UNSC Spartans and any other classes as well as the Covenant would become obsolete.

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:09AM

:) Pertitions for it to come back you say?

I think there will be an even bigger petition in competition for it to stay dead after seeing those screens.

Thank the heavens above! Thank you! This is the first good news I've heard since Ensemble split :D

j.howlett @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:17AM

it looks like that cartoon spoof from gta4

Mark @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:21AM

While I agree that a Halo MMO would not have been good, I am still waiting for a true WoW style MMO to be released for the Xbox360. The Marvel one was cancelled as well and DC universe will only be available for PS3 and PC. Is anything else in the works?

Maverick Saturn @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:37AM

FF11 ¬_¬

Gokie @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:29AM

I have to wonder if anyone who looked at that and thought it was a real Halo MMO has ever played WoW. Those unit frames could not be more obviously taken from one of any number of unitframe addons.

WhoMe @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:42AM

Good that this was canceled bacause, frankly, it looks a little sad.

This probably started out when they saw what a financial success WoW was. Only, a few years into development they woke up and said "WTF are we DOING??".

You can't just make everything into an MMO... Certainly not "teh Haloz".