Halo MMO that was cancelled in 06-07

Mofogo · 09-23-2008

I thought this was interesting, kinda. Would be weird to play an MMO like that.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170094

Quote:

Ensemble Was Making Now-Canceled Halo MMO in 06-07

Unearthed concept art shows the massively multiplayer Halo game that was never to be.

By Kris Pigna, 09/23/2008

In yet more Ensemble Studios news today, Gamasutra has uncovered a surprising project the Halo Wars developer was working on between 2006 and 2007: a canceled massively multiplayer online game set in the Halo universe. As you can see above, they've even obtained a user interface mock-up and concept art/screen shots to prove it.
The images were "at one point" made available on an artist's online portfolio (which linked to Ensemble's website), although it's not entirely clear this is where Gamasutra obtained them. What is clear in the shots is that they indisputably are set in the Halo universe; as Louis Wu, the webmaster of an unofficial Halo fansite (who Gamastura asked to interpret the images), points out, you can clearly see in the image below that the game is set on a Halo ring.

And judging by the UI (and what's obviously a group of power icons at the bottom), and by the energy sword-like weapons the character in the third image is wielding, the game at least seems to have been shaping up as a typical hack-and-slash MMORPG.

This revelation finally makes sense of a story from way back in 2006, when Ensemble Studios was discovered to be hiring for an unnamed MMO. At the time, one of the positions they were hiring for was an "Xbox Live developer," indicating this Halo MMO was probably originally planned to be released on both the PC and Xbox 360. As Gamasutra notes, Game Informer also ran a rumor in early 2006 stating that Ensemble and Bungie were teaming up to make a Halo MMO.
Moreover, in June of this year, Ensemble's Bruce Shelley published a blog post in which he revealed, "I mentioned previously that we set up three prototype teams out of the staff of a major project that we cancelled. After six months of very interesting work, we have now stopped two of those prototypes, with one getting more time to demonstrate the value of its concept."
It's uncertain what exactly caused the project to be canceled, and whether it had anything to do with Ensemble's recent closure. To be clear, work on this Halo MMO apparently ended sometime in 2007, long before Microsoft announced they'd be shutting Ensemble Studios down earlier this month. The obvious (and most interesting) question all this raises is: If Microsoft was interested in a Halo MMO a couple of years ago, who's to say they're not still interested now? The company has had bleak results trying to break into the massively multiplayer genre, but there's nothing to suggest they might not try their hand at it again with a different studio in the future.

Whitewater · 09-23-2008

Wow, that does look pretty cool. It would have probably been crack like WoW though.

WAN73D · 09-23-2008

Some of that looks like a really fancy WoW mod, especially the UI pic. But I do think the idea is at least interesting, as long as they keep it halo (if that makes any sense).

Shizit · 09-23-2008

Looks just like WoW.

CATER 4 Prezzz · 09-23-2008

The last pic would make the game dumb. Don't add a bunch of random shit that no one has seen before if you're gonna make a MMO based off the universe.

The first pic makes it look pretty fun I guess though.

l Thund3r l · 09-23-2008

It looks like it would have sucked

Azeron · 09-23-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by WAN73D

Some of that looks like a really fancy WoW mod, especially the UI pic. But I do think the idea is at least interesting, as long as they keep it halo (if that makes any sense).

That's what makes me think photoshop, those unitframes look exactly like pitbull.

Blackabyss · 09-23-2008

Huh, a Halo MMO....interesting. I think they may have swung it to be pretty good, but maybe not look so...familiar?? to MMO gamers.

WAN73D · 09-24-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azeron

That's what makes me think photoshop, those unitframes look exactly like pitbull.

I agree. But I still think the concept could be interesting.

lilmuleman214 · 10-05-2008

whether its fake or real anyone who was a fan of halo, and warcraft would buy it! IT could of been a hit.Prpbably not as successful as halo or WoW, but still good enough to last for a couple years.