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Canceled Ensemble project was Halo MMO

by Ross Miller on Sep 23rd 2008 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.

Source

Tags: breakingnews, bungie, ensemble, halo, halo-mmo, PC, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (78)

Hate you ¬_¬ Bit my tongue with laughter becuz of you

I'm really having a hard time buying this. Admitedly, if the story is true then my sentiments are shared by a good number of Microsoft executives, but presumably the project would have had to be greenlit by someone.
I'm more inclined to believe that this is the result of wishful thinking and photoshop by someone who either thought that it might show Microsoft that there was interest in the idea or needed a good laugh.
If it wasn't, I'd say its cancellation was one of the best things to happen to the franchise. EVER.

Man, this actually looks good. Looks like PSO only, Halo style. :-(

isnt that a troll behind the duel wielder...

Halo MMO = dumb

A Halo MMO could be pretty good... I'm picturing a world like WoW (in the sense of having different zones connected) with Battlefield esque objectives. The only time Mobs would be around was if there weren't enough real played to put up a fight.

Essentially it would be a free roaming FPS with a ranking system a la COD 4...

Does that really sound that bad? (Granted the screenies above look nothing like this, but thematically the idea itself is not aweful)

Nah, I would prefer it to look at least something like Tabula Rasa

Any new way to explore more of the Halo Universe is welcomed, but this doesn't seem to fit at all.

I wonder how long the Halo nipple will take to run dry...

( This comeing from someone who loves a 21 year old franchise >_> )

I still don't understand why light sabers were introduced to Halo :(

I have no problems with a Halo MMO. Halo has a very strong backstory/lore, having an MMO to play around with it all could work really well..

However, this looks like nothing more than a WoW clone, and that's the last thing we need. The style does not suit Halo in the slightest.

The sword thing doesn't cut it for me, if they are going to do an MMO, it would have to be like Tabula Rasa, the guns and grenades, would be cool agaisnst a swarm of covenant and flood.

Game could take place on the biggest of the rings, don't see why not.

I think, if made well, a Pokemon MMORPG would be pretty kickass. The concept of the series already sets itself up for a lot of potential as one. What do you guys think?

I hate pokemon so much. I was too old for pokemans by 2 years or so, and I couldn't be more happy to have missed that miserable fad. The best thing to come out of it was the pokemon episode of southpark.

Only if there weren't so many Ratatas and if they nixed the friend code system.

How would capturing Pokemon work? Are they random encounters? How about for rare/unique Pokemon like Zapdos or Mewtwo? Would you have to camp their spawns?

This just doesn't make any sense at all. I'm good with the RTS(since that's what it originally was)but not an MMO. That's just retarded.

Wow...Im a huge Halo fan but thank god this got cancelled!

I always thought a Halo MMO would look and play something like Tabula Rasa.

i cant believe that's real, the chat box, graphics, UI, ability buttons, EVERYTHING looks almost exactly like WoW

why is it that every successful online game HAS to become an MMO of some sort? They're merely timesinks and moneypits that provide mediocre repetitive gameplay in order to turn huge profits. Plus, there's the whole aspect of them demanding such control over players' lives that their focus becomes happenings in the game to such a point where it becomes so hard to do anything withthem in the real world because thegame is their primary focus in their life. And god forbid that you try to get in the way of their game!

Say no to mmos. Say yes to actual gameplay and fun. Say yes to actually having control over your own life.

if you lose control of your life to an MMO you probably didnt have a great life before

I dig the IDEA, but those screenshots don't look very good.

this is CLEARLY a WoW mod running custom art content. they're running a few mods, including X-Perl Unit Frames, and what appears to be Bongos.

this is either a massive rip off of both WoW and several Addons, or a fraud.

I call BS.

Seriously... Halo MMO? That's not an FPS??? I would make sense to re-attempt Planet-Side for the halo universe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30784486@N04/sets/72157607452469273/

Mmm, so maybe less BS than I thought... still a bad concept.

Yeah, this looks pretty bad. Good cancellation.

I mean, a Halo-universe traditional MMO? That idea isn't even good on paper. Sheesh. I live in Seattle... can MGS please hire me as just an idea man? I could come up w/ better crap than this.

I personally think it'd be a better idea to try for another Planetside or Huxley type, persistent world FPS for Halo. That said, I'm not a Halo fan so I could care less. I just want a Crackdown 2, please.

hmmm the Flickr photos gives the project frightening creditability, and game companies do sometimes "cancel" projects to cover leaks... the possibilitys are terrifying

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Breaking News

Canceled Ensemble project was Halo MMO

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