Cancelled Halo MMO Details

IncGamers' Tim McDonald talks to ex-Ensemble Studio staffer, current Windstorm Studios founder and president Dusty Monk about the Halo MMO that was in development at Ensemble prior to the studio's closure.

[FangBlade]

Microsoft kinda ruined the Halo franchise with Halo Wars and ODLC (or is it ODST?),
Halo MMO would've killed it completely.

[Leord]

Really?

I can't really see how Halo Wars would have anything to do with the main Halo franchise, other than lore.

Is that what you mean was killed, or just was a bad game with the franchise's name on it?

[Cogo]

I can see what he means - I didn't like Halo Wars either.

[FangBlade]

Exactly what I meant.
Halo Wars Halo ODST and even Halo Legends kinda ruined the Halo franchise IMO.
They should've stayed true to the franchise.

[Reibooi]

@FangBlade

Gotta disagree with that. ODST is a great game. It's insanely short and priced to high but a great game nonetheless.(I Gameflyed it so I would not have have to buy it).

Halo Wars wasn't bad it was just far to simple for a RTS which stemmed from the fact that it was developed as a console RTS and they had to keep it simple so the controller would be able to control it quickly and effectively. Seeing as the Halo series was originally intended to be a RTS I found it fitting to see one actually happen.

As far as this MMO goes. I'm glad it didn't happen. A MMO just doesn't fit the Halo universe and the concept stuff they showed proves that. It look like that Masterchief clone was using to swords right out of WoW. It really didn't look good.

[Elven6]

Fang: Have you even played Halo Wars or Halo 3: ODST? They DO stay true to the franchise, everything in those games is canon either mentioned directly in the games or in the original books/short films. Those games didn't review or sell badly either, people liked them.

I haven't seen Halo: Legends so I can't comment on that.

On topic: The Halo MMO sounds like it could have brought some pretty innovative ideas to MMO's at the time if released in the 04-07 time period like mentioned in the interview. Whether it would have fit with the Halo universe, I can't say. It would have been cool to see Blizzard and Ensemble at it again, my greatest RTS memories to this day are from those two companies!

[Hank Hill]

Halo Wars was just an attempt to get the PC RTS gamers off Starcraft and on board with the Xbox, of course it failed to do so. ODST was just a quick cash in. Both games left somewhat of a sour taste in the mouths of some of the Halo fanbase and this MMO is going too far so I think it was smart for Microsoft to cancel it.

[Hands Up For Games]

How do you have so many Bubbles?

[DARK WITNESS]

Halo odst was awesome in my book, short, but playing it on legendary I got more playtime from it then some short games that have been out this gen.

I didn't play Halo wars so can't say much there.

for me it was Halo legends that was the odd ball that just didn't belong ( from a story point of view )

The last flim with John in it was cool, the rest of it should have been the same. the first two short films where cortana goes into the whole history lesson completely ruined it for me.

I consider myself a halo fan, Halo CE is still my no 1 fps. I have read all the books. halo 2 and 3 were cool, but there were things in the story I felt ended up messing it up a bit... but halo legends, I wiped that little miss-hap clean out of my memory.

Halo MMO, maybe it would have been good, maybe not, we will never know.

[EvilBlackCat]

@FangBlade
"Microsoft kinda ruined the Halo franchise with Halo Wars and ODLC (or is it ODST?), Halo MMO would've killed it completely"

YOU DAMN PIECE OF LOYALIST CRAP!

How did MS ruined Halo Franchise with Halo Wars? please illuminate us with your wise knowledge!

and how the halo MMO was going to be a complete piece of garbage?!!

please wise poopman en light us!!!

"Just to give you a couple of examples," Monk elaborated, "we were using a heroic stylised artform. This heroic stylised artform is exactly the artform that you see being used in Star Wars: The Old Republic right now. It's timeless. It doesn't age itself like a game that's built with a strictly realistic artform does."

"We were developing a cover system. This cover system is in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We had the idea of quests - and like I said, this was between 2004 and 2007, before Warhamer Online had been released - but we had this idea of quests where you could participate and pull them together without having to be on the same team. This would be a public quest that everyone in a particular area could work on. That idea went into Warhammer Online."

I guess Old Republic mmo is bnllsh1t right FANG?!

ONCE AGAIN

HALO WARS is the best RTS on consoles ever!!! IS USER FRIENDLY if u dont get it you are the most moronic rts gamer ever.

[Leord]

What, noo?!

[Maticus]

It would've been a WoW contender alright from the sounds of it. Why was it cancelled??

[Kingdom Come]

Because Ensemble Studios, the developer of the MMO and Halo Wars Closed shortly after the release of the latter.

[Fyzzu]

Sounds like they were working on the right lines. Sad this disappeared :/ Looks like the right way to do this sort of MMO...

[Cogo]

Indeed. Nothing wrong with the vision.

[Malfurion]

Any chance someone else will pick it up? Looks like a sure fire winner to me.

[Cogo]

If someone started it, surely someone else can pick it up.

Please?

[Leord]

I am not too well versed in developer lore. Not sure tbh.

[c0de]

maybe they thought this wouldn't do well b/c of the "pure" halo fan-base of wanting to keep it fps. look at halo wars; a failure

[fox02]

in what regard? Review scores (82%)? Sales (2mil)?

[dragonelite]

Not to forget better control scheme for rts consoles.

If they did a mmo in the haloverse logic would say do it in the Forerunner vs flood time period. Every thing is a mystery there because if they did humans vs covenant vs flood how would you explain thousand of spartans running around. I know its a video game but some logic and credibility is nice.

[Kingdom Come]

Code obviouslt doesnt realise that Halo Wars was a complete other Genre to The FPS games. Ensemble is a company I sympathise for, great developer, no more.

[blasian]

they foresaw failure

[kevinx1000]

Seen this before.. and it did look bad.
Not that i would mind a halo RPG/MMO, but just let it be a good one and fit in to the universe.

[Kingdom Come]

This is Old. And I'm talking years...
I think it was a correct move to cancel the game, only because fans of the Halo franchise would have been purchasing the game with the expectations of similar gameplay, it would have just been to much of a shift. Just like how a number of my friends, all Halo Obsessives, loathed Halo War's. I'm sure though that this would have been the Perfect game for both Halo and MMO Fans though...

[washingmachine]

lol@halo mmo,carried the frak away for sure

[fhizikz]

halo wars was great still play it today. and there is thousands of players at any givin time

[spunnups]

Not a big Halo fan, but I have no doubt if a Halo MMO was done properly ala WoW or something like that, it could have been huge. Not sure what MS was thinking with this one.

I understand Ensemble was closed but I don't know why exactly. Of course a Halo RTS isn't going to sell Halo 1,2, or 3 like numbers, but it did decent compared to other RTS's on a console like C&C.

[Mo0eY]

Awww, man. I wanted to play this MMO so bad! I have the Halo baseball cap, the Halo cereal, the Halo Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, the Halo Master Chief helmet, the Halo t-shirts. I even make weapons from aluminum foil from Halo, both the Halo Xbox and Halo Xbox 360, the Halo figureines from Toys R' Us, and of course, every single Halo game ever created.

I also have over 20GB of Halo concept art on my PC.

Why did they cancel this amazing concept?

[COINTELPRO]

Judging from the concept art and screenies I saw this game seemed really crappy. Good thing it was canceled.