Again in 2005, rumors swirled of a Halo MMO in growth with Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios. The undertaking got here to an abrupt finish in 2008 when Microsoft shuttered the studio, nonetheless one of many builders on the MMO has spilled the beans on the misplaced game–and why it was cancelled.
Sandy Peterson, identified for his work on the Name of Cthulu TTRPG and Doom earlier than he moved to Ensemble, has posted a thread on X along with his recollections concerning the doomed Halo MMO, which was codenamed Titan. He says that he was in control of the universe-building for the undertaking, which was going to be set within the far previous earlier than the Halos destroyed all sentient life within the galaxy.
“The bottom estimate we & Microsoft had for the sport’s whole revenue was $1.1 billion,” Peterson claims. Earlier experiences concerning the cancelled MMO backed up Microsoft’s early dedication to the formidable undertaking, saying that Titan had been allotted a large $90 million finances.
In line with Petersen, the issue arose when Don Mattrick, who was promoted to go of Xbox in 2007, “realized that his inventory bonus was primarily based on the revenue MS had from video games in 3 years.” This timing was problematic for Titan, which Petersen stated was estimated on the time to want 3.5 years to complete correctly.
“And that’s past Mattrick’s drop useless date,” Petersen concludes. “So by firing ALL of Ensemble, he did not must pay for our costly studio for 3 years and he did not care about Titan.” Petersen does not say whether or not he noticed proof that this was the case, or if that is simply his learn on the state of affairs, however earlier experiences on Ensemble’s closure additionally famous workplace politics as one of many principal elements within the studio’s demise.
Mattrick’s reign at Xbox was largely an unpopular one with followers, with the exec presiding over the Kinect, the much-maligned dashboard redesign, and the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. “All he misplaced was a recreation studio who by no means bought lower than 3 million copies of all the pieces we made,” Petersen added on the Ensemble closure. “I do not consider he did justice to Microsoft stockholders however hey – Don began as an EA hatchet man so what would you anticipate?”