Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO

[Mrbloodworth]

Following the recent announcement that Microsoft-owned Age Of Empires creator Ensemble Studios would close after the completion of Halo Wars, Gamasutra has discovered that a now-canceled Halo MMO was in development at the studio, unearthing prototype UI and level screenshots of the Ensemble-developed project.

The prototype art, which was at one point made available on an Ensemble-linked online artist portfolio website, further confirms previous rumors that the studio was working on an MMO based on the Bungie-created sci-fi franchise.

Notable, rumors reported in Game Informer magazine in early 2006 claimed that Bungie and Ensemble were teaming up to make a Halo-themed MMO. And, although it was not clear that it was Halo-specific, websites such as 1UP did point out that Ensemble was hiring for an MMO project as early as April 2006.

The title seems to have been in development in 2006 and some of 2007 -- though it's by no means clear that it was the only MMO-related title in development at the studio at that time.

What is clear, however, is that Ensemble's Bruce Shelley mentioned in a June 2008 blog post that they "...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."

Thus, it appears that the Halo MMO project was likely internally cancelled some time in mid-late 2007, without any formal announcement from Microsoft that it was ever in development. The below UI mockup and concept/level screenshots also date from the 2006-2007 period.

Gamasutra had a chance to ask Massively.com lead blogger Michael Zenke about the MMO-related elements in the prototype UI screenshot (click through for a higher-res version):





Massively's Zenke explained the following on the prototype UI (of which there were several posted): "The character pane shows a health bar and 'mana' -- or Psion, as is referred to in this title... The upper right icons are for basic character functions. The one on the far left would most likely be inventory, represented by the outline of a man.

Moving right, I'd guess that's a 'talent tree' screen for customizing your character, most likely a powers menu (a brain to represent the Psion?), a titles or achievements screen represented by the trophy, and a support ticket system represented by the chat bubble icon.

There are many obvious tips of the hat here to the World of Warcraft interface. Simplicity and streamlined play appear to be the object of the game, but it's interesting to see so many strange icons on the hotbar.

From the choice of abilities, it's easy to surmise that that the game would have been some sort of melee/magic brawler. The upper bar has some similarities to the WoW UI modification Titan Panel - a favorite amongst players."

Also included were a number of in-game level pictures, both concept art and in-level shots, and Gamasutra asked 'Louis Wu', webmaster of the unofficial Halo website Halo.bungie.org to interpret them.



Of this shot and others in the same series that Gamasutra has not yet printed, Wu commented: "Clearly broken Halo Warthogs, dead marines, a color palette last seen in Halo PC multiplayer levels like 'Infinity'. The presence of an actual Halo in the background of the last shot is also a dead giveaway [as to the game setting]."



Of course, the cancellation of the Ensemble version of a Halo MMO doesn't necessarily preclude other Microsoft-sanctioned developers from working on Halo franchise titles.

And with Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently mentioning: "There are more than two or three teams building Halo things right now", it could be that a Halo title with similarly expansive online options is now being tried at another studio. If so, there has been no public information about it to date.

[UPDATE: The 'Gone Is Gone' weblog has posted a full Flickr gallery of the concept art and UI mockups for the canceled prototype, sourced from the same art portfolio as Gamasutra's original story.]

[murdoc]

A Halo MMO made no sense imo

[Mrbloodworth]

A Halo MMO made no sense imo

Yep, doesn't even look like it was ever even going to be a FPS.

[schild]

A halo MMOG would've done gangbusters diku or not. As I said on GR, I'm glad it was canceled. As much as I love Ensemble, this was just lazy game design.

[Ratman_tf]

Huh. Those screenshots don't look bad. I want to play it. (Mostly out of *you can't have it now, nyah!* I imagine.)

[tmp]

A Halo MMO made no sense imo

Think World of Starcraft minus one side. The whole thing even started as RTS after all.

[HaemishM]

I can only thank FSM that this never even reached the announcement stage. Seeing drunken frat boys trying to grasp the concept of a Halo MMOG would be painful.

[Lum]

Am I the only one wondering if this prototype art isn't some kind of April Fool's joke?

I mean.... it's literally WoW interface art with Halo characters. I know the MMO industry is based on cloning everyone's ideas iteration over innovation, but this is just... bad.

[HaemishM]

but this is just... bad.

Halo... MMOG. How much worse could it be?

[Mrbloodworth]

A halo MMOG would've done gangbusters diku or not. As I said on GR, I'm glad it was canceled. As much as I love Ensemble, this was just lazy game design.

Yeah, um. No. Cant agree, not in any stretch. Unless it was on a console, and even then, you know how many people MMO style gameplay would cause fits of anger for? All of them.

DIKU is not halo. Never will be, and will never be an attractive thing to associate with it.

FPS (Not that TR BS) or GTFO.

That's like saying quake would be HOTSHIT(!) with like, skills...., and dice rolls....., and turn based.

EDIT: Or Diablo with no loot and in first person. 

[schild]

You can't read.

I was criticizing them for going Diku but flat out saying that it would've done gangbusters anyway.

But seriously, you can't read. You just got frothy about something you didn't get. 

[Mrbloodworth]

You can't read.

I was criticizing them for going Diku but flat out saying that it would've done gangbusters anyway.

But seriously, you can't read. You just got frothy about something you didn't get. 

No froth, i don't agree it would do gangbusters. Think about who plays halo, will they get that interface? or like pressing skills?

I mean sure, the fact thats its halo may gain some buyers, but the game play won't.

 





EDIT: Also most of that was not screen shots, but photoshop jobs and concepts.

EDIT: I know i can't read.

[Nonentity]

The unitframe is the default layout for the ag_unitframes WoW mod.

 

EDIT:

Yep, totally is!

http://www.thenonentity.com/nonui1.jpg

[Yegolev]

I spotted an elven mage in one of those screens.

[tmp]

No froth, i don't agree it would do gangbusters. Think about who plays halo, will they get that interface? or like pressing skills?

Think about who plays warcraft, would they like gameplay revolving around single unit and without top-down view?

Some people obviously wouldn't enjoy the transition, but there's no way to tell how many would, nor how many new customers it could attract, ones that don't find the twitch fps gameplay appealing for whatever reason. As for interface... it's hardly rocket science or something more advanced than native menu of modern console.

[Krakrok]

Fuck Halo, where is the GI Joe MMO ala Planetside.

[Rasix]

Right next to the Thundercats MMO in a giant box labeled "Shit that won't make any money".

[schild]

GI Joe might earn some cash moneys. Lots of manchildren love GI Joe.

Halo on the other hand would do fucking gangbusters. Bloodworth, you might not think so, but you're way wrong on that one.

[Ingmar]

I'd only play it if I get to be Shipwreck.

[Surlyboi]

I'd play Blowtorch. But only so I could run into people's houses yelling "Porkchop sandwiches!" And "Get the fuck out! We're all gonna die, you stupid idiots!"

[Ingmar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT7AH4JyuNs

[UnSub]

Am I the only one wondering if this prototype art isn't some kind of April Fool's joke?

I mean.... it's literally WoW interface art with Halo characters. I know the MMO industry is based on cloning everyone's ideas iteration over innovation, but this is just... bad.

I thought this too. It looks very ordinary, even for a MMO in pre-alpha state. Either the devs were WoW-fanbois who copied homaged WoW slavishly, or the idea was to get the prototype out so quickly and so cheaply that no original thought was put in.

A Halo MMO made no sense imo

It does as an Xbox 360 exclusive MMO.

[Hawkbit]

I'd play as Sgt. Slaughter, but I can only imagine the cereal-eating grind to open that one up. 

[Fordel]

I'm a pretty damn big Halo fan boy and even I think a Halo MMO would've been incredibly dumb.

[Ghambit]

Halo as an FPS was incredibly dumb, so IMO it being ported to an MMO might actually be a paradigm shift in a positive direction for the game; sales or no sales.  Of course, I'm using the logic here that a shytty FPS generally makes a good DIKU.

[HaemishM]

I thought this too. It looks very ordinary, even for a MMO in pre-alpha state. Either the devs were WoW-fanbois who copied homaged WoW slavishly, or the idea was to get the prototype out so quickly and so cheaply that no original thought was put in.

Halo... original thought.

Does not compute.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm a pretty damn big Halo fan boy and even I think a Halo MMO would've been incredibly dumb.

A halo MMO would be rather sweet, if it was like planetside 2.5.

[UnSub]

A bit more info:

Shack:  What were the circumstances behind the Halo MMO?

Dave Pottinger: Ensemble has been wanting to make an MMO for a long time. That was in production for a long time. The Halo IP was a great IP to launch an MMO with. Microsoft... hasn't had the best track record with those.

And we worked on it for a long time--we had staffed up an almost-40 person team. And then there was some reorganization at Microsoft, and the new bosses thought it wasn't the best idea anymore. It had actually been green-lit, and then it got cancelled after that.

Shack: So you guys were feeling good about it?

Dave Pottinger: Yeah, we were happy with it. It was a long road to go, and we had proved the gameplay we wanted to prove.

It actually turned out--we ended up reusing a lot of the people. We had hired people who were excited about making a Halo game, and we used them on Phoenix--Phoenix is the Halo Wars codename. And a lot of that stuff that we picked up was able to be reused. So we didn't lose everything. It wasn't all wasted.

Shack: From the screenshots that were leaked, it seemed very World of Warcraft-esque. Was that your model?

Dave Pottinger: Yeah. It's a popular one.

Shack: Was the concept such that there were Covenant and UNSC factions, in the same way that WoW has Horde and Alliance?

Dave Pottinger: It was more broken up than that. The Covenant weren't quite the Covenant yet.

That idea of that sort of stylized approach to Halo was something that we were very interested in, in terms of the art. Some of the art that leaked out wasn't art that was actually in the game, so people were a little more torqued than they needed to be.

But it felt very Halo--we had a combat demo that felt like a very action-oriented MMO, but still had that MMO depth. So it was very analogous to the RTS that we worked on.

Shack: So you didn't have plans to go for a more FPS-style game.

Dave Pottinger: It was definitely more of a classic MMO, but it still had that very action feel. Definitely more actiony than WoW.

[Fordel]

His bit about the Covenant makes no sense.


Also, WoW Clone Halo MMO? That would've been something epic all right 

[UnSub]

His bit about the Covenant makes no sense.

If it was a prequel to Halo, it couldn't have the Master Chief, so yeah, made no sense.

However, he could have mis-remembered it and meant that Covenant would have split after Halo 3... or something.

[Goreschach]

He was just stumbling around groping for an answer as to why it wasn't exactly like WoW.

[schild]

Of course it was going to be WoW. And it would've been successful, no doubt. Boring, but successful.

[Venkman]

He was just stumbling around groping for an answer as to why it wasn't exactly like WoW.

Err, read to me like he was doing the exact opposite.

In this day and age, if you're a big company with money to spend, you're either cloning WoW under the auspices of an IP with analogous or higher awareness (in which Halo fits), or you're closing WoW with the intent on improving parts that you don't think WoW does well enough (WAR for "better" RvR PvP, SWTOR for "better" hero's journey storytelling).

What you're not doing as a big company is studying Eve, CoX, Neocron, AO or any of the other games that were barely second place to EQ1, and are basically nowadays statistical rounding errors. The only people on your team looking at these games may be a few of your artists or programmers who naturally have a deeper geek streak than the EP or those to whom they report.

In short: Halo + DIKU-as-defined-by-WoW = belief in money hats. It's nothing more than label slapping, but for the same reason mediocre business development managers keep thinking label slapping actually works.

[ashrik]

I'd play a Halo MMORPG. Shit, I'd even give a G.I. Joe planetside-esque MMO a try. Both of them sound like games I'd want to play.

[Riggswolfe]

His bit about the Covenant makes no sense.

If it was a prequel to Halo, it couldn't have the Master Chief, so yeah, made no sense.

However, he could have mis-remembered it and meant that Covenant would have split after Halo 3... or something.

I'm guessing it was a prequel. And no, you can't have Master Chief, per se, but you can have Spartans. Remember, there were originally quite a few of them (though I don't pretend to know exact numbers). My guess? The game was something about the early war or first encounters with the Covenant.

Still, the presence of an actual Halo makes no sense in that context since it was clearly a first encounter for humanity in the first game.