Halo Wars sells a million, Ensemble still disbanded

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 19th 2009 1:21PM

Microsoft announced today that Ensemble's Halo Wars has sold one million units worldwide. According to the publisher, that makes the wars of the Halos the best selling real-time strategy game on any current-gen console -- 'cause, you know, it's such a "Flood"-ed field.

As for the stats: there have been 2.6 million multiplayer matches, over 118 years of time have been spent by players in matches on Xbox Live, more than 200,000 players battle each day and 80% of them achieve wins through Warthog rushes (okay, we made that last one up). If you're looking for more stats, click here. Microsoft says more content is on the way for the game from Robot Entertainment, "so stay tuned."

Halo Wars

Tags: ensemble, ensemble-studios, halo, halo-wars, microsoft, rts, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (77)

god it sucks that they got shut down.

But at least they have Robot Entertainment now. Just because the name has changed doesn't mean the style of the games does too. Anyways, I didn't really doubt it'd sell alot, seeing as it's a combination of two popular things: Halo, and Real Time Strategy.

Last I heard they were going to regardless of the sales. Still, you know this game, regardless of the quality of the title, only sold so well because it has the title of Halo on it.

Who knows, maybe this will get new interest in RTS games, because god knows FPS multiplayer has been beaten to death.

they wanted to quit because of the market perception that ensemble studios is an RTS only studio. they were killed by their own success in the genre. robot entertainment is going to work on projects other than rts as well. so yeah. basically by changing their name, all they did was say that they are going to use more variety in their games.

"over 118 years of time have been spent by players in matches on Xbox Live"

I love stats like that - they simultaneously show you how successful a game is, and how much time could have been spent on something more meaningful.

Yea, over a lifetime of accomplishment, wasted on Halo Wars :-X

Yeah, we could have cured cancer in those 118 years!

Damn, now we're stuck waiting for a real 118 years to pass.

Stats like that really are useless.

I've seen displays advertised as having "over 300,000 stunning pixels"... though the only thing that's stunning is that it equates to only 640x480.

118 years of idiots with microscopes probably wouldn't cure anything.

And they're terribly misleading. Taking advantage of people's lousiness with big numbers.

118 man-years is a lot of time until you realize its spread over so many people.

Let me put it another way. In the last 24 hours, man has spent approximately 6 million years sleeping. Wow, sounds impressive, eh?

Yeah, and every time the Super Bowl comes around we get to hear all the stuff about how 10 billion work hours or whatever are wasted by people talking about the Super Bowl instead of working, not to mention the time spent watching it.

I guess we should just get rid of the Super Bowl too. Because really, who needs entertainment or enjoyment when we could just spend every minute of our lives working instead, so that we can wake up the next day only to work some more.

What they don't tell you is the 500k that were returned by angry halo fans upon learning that it's not an FPS :P

Go back under your bridge, troll.

I have the shittiest Sarcasmeter in the history of this website and even I could tell that that was a joke.

Duh it's not a fucking FPS.

You can see that from the screenshots. If you didn't know it was a RTS then more fool you.

...it's like I'm the only person left on the planet with reading comprehension.

really tmac? really?

I thought you were different to the other PS3fanboys but I guess that now I can officially call you a troll.

Yes, because in order to like the 360 you have to like halo.

To me, it's one of the worst franchises in gaming, continuing to pump out increasing amounts of mediocrity with each iteration.

@tmac

lol, you win, and thats about the right number

@tmac

"it's one of the worst franchises in gaming, continuing to pump out increasing amounts of mediocrity with each iteration"

The Halo franchise is the most played and best selling franchise of this an last
generation.

You're a bloody twat mate.

MF Doom, I'm pretty sure everyone knew that it was a joke, they just didn't like what was implied by it. Maybe your reading comprehension isn't all that great.

Seriously, Killiam? You just called someone a twat because they don't like the same videogames as you?

Seriously?

If only high numbers meant high quality. When the majority of your game's fanbase is foul mouthed 12 year olds and wiggers, you're not going to get any respect from me. It doesn't help that the game itself (talking about 3 only here, since that's all I played) is boring as all hell.

"To me, it's one of the worst franchises in gaming, continuing to pump out increasing amounts of mediocrity with each iteration."

"talking about [Halo] 3 only here, since that's all I played"

Wait a tic... Something is wrong here.

@Hyams

There's a difference between not liking something, and mindlessly bashing it. The majority of people who complain about the games seem to be people who have no idea what they're talking about and usually haven't even played the games, at least at length.

Complaining about the fanbase is particularly bad, ANY online fanbase is that way, just look at these forums. The fact Halo is extremely popular and all the players have access to voice communication while playing definitely makes it seem worse.. But you don't actually have to talk to, or even listen to them.

Uh, Brian, what? Did you read his comment before you replied to it?

tmac- that was funny..
hyams- you havent been on psn for a month or so, everything ok? or u use a new name?

i havent had interest to play this game yet myself as i am still playing through endwar.

Sk8: Everything is not okay.

In fact, it's terrible.

My PS3 died.

=(

Only just got around to sending it off. Should hopefully be getting it back in a week or so.

Its fun to see tmac get original.

that sucks..
is it under warranty or a $ 150 fix for you?
i dont know you much, but i thought something was wrong..
good to know its just with a machine... lol.

... and one million people still wouldn't know a real, GOOD RTS if it punched them in their face.

That's okay, because with a name like that, you've just proven that you wouldn't know a genuinely funny TV show if it punched you in the face.

@baby sea tuna: LOL. Made my day :D

Real Time Strategy, right?
Well the game is played in real time, which is equivalent to the acronym RT.
This game also involves, in one way or another, strategy; equivalent to the acronym S.

So, this seems to point to the conclusion that Halo Wars is indeed a real RTS.
Now get off your high horse, and stick it up your ass, douche.

So, you don't think this game might turn on some gamers to a genre they didn't know they liked? This is a gateway game for the Halo fanbase. Expect more of them to seek out better RTS.

In the meantime, who are you to say what a "good" RTS is? It sounds like people are having fun with HW. I think more RTS games could use some simplicity.

i guess there's no room for stoner rts?

that's what I call halo wars, because I dont have to micro JACK SHIT. It's an amazing game to blaze and have fun, whilst not worrying that your adversary is issuing more hotkey commands per minute than you, thus leading to your eventual defeat.

There is definitely a market for this kind of rts. No run along and play total war...damn kids

I find it humorous that I both agree and disagree with the slimmed down play style. I agree that I love not having to fly around the map, issuing a command every second to make sure that I am achieving optimum efficiency, but at the same time, I desire slightly more advanced options. I mean, is "Stand Ground" so much to ask for?

Baaa-Zing!

melloncollie, you totally failed in your rebuttal. The guy capitalized "GOOD", not "real", the only thing your ever so insightful comment did was show that it was an RTS, it didn't show that it was good.

I havn't played the game, so I don't know one way or another, I just felt like pointing that out to you. Next time, make sure your comment is solid before deciding to insult someone with it.

The sales just show the power of brand marketing.

I'm not into RTS games and the main reason I got Halo Wars was because I wanted to see more of the story. I read all the Halo books and it's about time they made a game about the fall of Reach.

It shocks me how people think that making another game based on Halo is a bad thing. In case you haven't noticed, Halo games are consistently high quality productions. There might eb a few things to gripe about, but they are generally top notch games.

You are free to not like them, but recognize the overall quality before you indict it for being an evil spawn of Microsoft or a 12 year old potty-mouth magnet.

Edge, your comments make no sense in this context.

Bungie has made a lot of games. A lot of good games. Don't confuse this with being because they are Halo games, because Bungie made a lot of non-Halo games that are good too.

This is a classic brand slide. Take a brand that people love and has been well cared for and give it to other, more cost-effective (and pliable) groups to exploit. People will buy it because they associate the name with the quality they've typically seen in the past. Yeah, the brand name will take a small knock, but you'll make money.

Then repeat the process. Really make that brand work.

Activision does this with CoD (with the Treyarch games). And they do it with Guitar Hero. Almost all companies do it a little. But I don't see how anyone can get confused and think it's a good thing. It's exploitative most of all.

But you're ignoring the fact that the game is actually very good..

Although I'm a fan of Halo, I certainly wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't any good. The game wasn't heavily hyped, and there's been a demo on Live since a few weeks before the game was out.

While I love Bungie for what they have done with the Halo franchise, I love Halo itself more. Therefore I am happy to see the Halo universe expanded further, and as long as Microsoft continues to guarantee AAA Halo games, I'll continue to check them out. And since Halo is what secured the Xbox as a legit console for them, I doubt they will take any risks with it. If they want to expand into other genres with the series, I'm down with it, as long as they are good games by themselves (which I feel that Halo Wars is). Good standalone game + storyline that I like = something I will enjoy even more.

Very good is an exaggeration. It's an average to good game. But I am not ignoring that, nor does that violate what I wrote. Try reading it again.

Is W@W not a good game? It's not as good as CoD4, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good game. It's a brand slide. Take a brand with a top notch reputation and compromise it a little (not a lot) to expand your income. Then next time compromise it a bit more to expand your income further. In the end, it hurts the brand a lot, but it takes a while.

Check out the Crash Bandicoot brand and what happened there. Naughty Dog treated it like gold. Universal compromised it. Universal made more money off it and there are definitely people who were happy with some of the later games. But in the end, they reduced the value of the brand and the regard people had for it. The same will almost certainly happen here.

why not the LS2LS7?

There are two major problems with your theory.

#1. Ensemble has a strong reputation for making great RTS's and have been at it almost as long as Bungie.

#2. Halo Wars is a very good game, easily standing proud among the Halo games that came before it. It's hardly a "brand slide" as you called it.

And just in case you didn't know, Halo was originally concieved as an RTS, and was only converted to a FPS when MS became interested in buying Bungie. You could say Halo Wars is the original concept of the IP finally coming to fruition.

@mgsrocks1

Only problem is the game doesn't take place on Reach.

AkaMagi:
No, it was not converted for MS. It was already converted before MS bought Bungie. It was originally more of a strategy game, but it was more of an over-the-shoulder 3rd person one, not a top-down game. Then they added a sniper rifle so it had to go 1st person for that (like MDK). And it kind of slid more toward Marathon from there.

All of this happened before MS bought Bungie, it was clearly on display when Apple had Halo in their keynote one year, and that was quite some time before MS.

Don't try to drop Bungie history on me, I had friends who worked on Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity, Myth and Oni. And I used to play Marathon with Jason Jones.

Why you want to bring any of this up I have no idea. This game has nothing to do with Bungie. Bungie doesn't own Halo any more and they didn't work on this, this is a MS game.

This is not a very good game. It's an average to good game. And it's not a brand slide? Name the last 82 metacritic game Bungie released. And it wasn't a Halo game, was it?

It's a classic brand slide. Take a loved brand and hand it to another group to make you some more jack.

mgsrocks1:
Just to geek out on you; Reach isn't even mentioned in the game besides the timeline. Harvest is the planet you were looking for.
By the way, the Spartan vs. Elite cutscene was so fracking awesome!!

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Halo Wars sells a million, Ensemble still disbanded

Halo Wars

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