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Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO
simoniker writes "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."
We discussed the future closing of Ensemble Studios a couple weeks ago. The set of pictures which seem to be screenshots and graphic models from the canceled Halo MMO has been posted on Flickr. In other Halo news, Bungie may be teasing the announcement of the next game on their website.
Perhaps Halo Wars isn't living up to the hype and expectations and Microsoft is looking to cut there losses. On the other hand, the AoE series was always excellent, so that would be pretty surprising.
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Those shots look stupid and fake. I think someone was having a laugh.
anyone notice that one of the UI screenshots looked just like WoW, just done in glowing neon, without the gryphons on the end of the skillbar? heck even the inventory slots are on the end and look like bags.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
We didn't need another WoW clone. They're right.
Nothing of value was lost.
PS : I love the smell of burning karma in the morning.
You just got troll'd!
I wouldn't think a Halo MMO would be feasible. Its FPS. Hellgate failure anyone? (And i had high hopes for that one) with an EPIC main character which CAN be done, Conan does a half decent job of it but you can't let everyone play a spartan.
In Conan you are a warrior just like everyone else. You are better than common warriors in theory but everyone has the same potential that you do. The halo universe is extremely unbalanced. There are only X number of spartans, certainly not enough to populate an MMO. And playing Halo MMO as a marine would be more of a Team Fortress with experience and items type game. Not a bad idea for a game, but an idea that doesn't fit the Halo universe at all.
I also can't see the fans of the Halo gameplay appreciating roll-to-hit combat, nor do I see typical MMO players taking to the twitch and adrenalin style of play that would cater to the FPS gamers. You will end up alienating one full half of the group a Halo MMO appeal to.
There are exceptions to each rule (I like both styles of play myself and I really enjoy the story to Halo) but you have to appeal to a very large group of people to keep an MMO going. It was a smart decision to cancel the project and I appreciate the fact that they were willing to forgo some quick easy cash in order to work on something else.
This is most unfortunate. Never would there have been a more appropriate place to call someone a team-killing fucktard.
You obviously know alot about MMO gaming but I think your conclusions are based on massive (heh) assumptions about the gameplay and how they were going to integrate this game into the Halo universe.
You talk about there "not being enough spartans..." and other limitations you foresee based on the Halo FPS storyline. Fact is, the game 'writers' could dream up any scenario they wanted to explain why there were more units. A post-apocalyptic alternate universe for example. The doors are wide open.
As far as players not appreciating MMO gameplay style, that's an open question. It's wrong to assume that Halo players are just mindless ADD addled button mashers. Halo has been around for years now, enough for gamers to have started playing in high school and now be post-collegiate professionals. Halo3 online consistently has about 300,000 players whenever I sign in to play. Sure *some* Halo players are button mashing pre-teens, but you're insinuating that they are the majority (and assuming that ADD button mashers don't like WoW).
Also, I know several specific cases of friends who will play anything Halo. They don't like WoW b/c of the fantasy aspect of it more than the gameplay (in the end...good gameplay transcends 'style' or game 'genre'). If a Halo MMO was at least comparable to WoW, they'd play.
Speaking of WoW comparisons...nothing is ever going to measure up. Basically WoW perfected the massive multiplayer genre (it's the Michael Jordan of the genre), and every MMOG after will be "just a WoW" clone. So what? Millions love MMOG, why isn't there room for a well designed, Halo-based, sci-fi version? I think there is plenty of potential gamers.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Can we have the Firefly MMO yet please?
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Everything you say is true about what makes MMORPGs successful and how it applies to Halo.
However, Microsoft has shown every indication over the past year that they are done with the console market:
* They pissed off the single major developer Bungie enough to make them force MS to let them leave
* They let studios like BioWare and Bizzare go off and become crossplatform developers
* They have made no new studios first party
* They have refused to spend money to seriously drop the price of the 360 to boost sales with the 360 hardware still losing money as of the middle of 2008 according to their own CFO
* The Xbox 360 is selling globally at an almost identical rate as the first Xbox. Microsoft only shipped 2 million new 360s worldwide for the first half of 2008. The only hope the 360 has to eek out a few million more sales than the 25 million selling Xbox is if they don't pull the plug on the 360 around the middle of 2009 which is the same length of time the Xbox had on the market
* They've had almost nothing new to show for a year now at major gaming shows. Their one major announcement in 2008 was that they are paying for a port of a game that is coming out six months to a year earlier in Japan on the PS3 and most likely won't be out for the 360 until early 2010.
* They appear to be giving up on the Halo/fratboy/20 something crowd and trying to target the Wii demographic which has been met with derisive responses from both the existing XBox and Wii crowd
With Microsoft looking to spend 40 billion on a stock buyback and dividend increases the days of throw billions at the console market appear to be winding down. After seven some years and over seven billion in losses with nothing to show for it Microsoft will most likely try this one last hail mary attempt of targeting the Wii crowd and then let the 360 and entire Xbox team quietly shut down.
Wow, would this be a craptastic game, and the community would just be horrid.
On the other hand, it'd bleed off a lot of retards from other MMO's, so it's too bad it got canned.
And a sequel to Oni. Frogblast The Vent Core FOREVER!
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How many times is HALO MMO going to be attempted and fail?
Oh man I can't help but laugh.
If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure the original halo was supposed to be an MMO and spent years in development.
It was only after some time that they scrapped the idea for console instead.
Good story, bad game.
MMO... bad story, bad game.
Jason Jones & crew have more talent in their foreskin than any of these yahoos at Microsoft & Ensemble have in their whole brain. All hail the new independent Bungie. Game on.
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It doesn't look like there was any great loss, it seems very generic. How on Earth do you take Halo and manage to get "burly bearded man with swords" and "sultry technicolour wizardess" or "leggy spandex laser girl"? The art style has about a 90% debt to WoW and CoH, and about a 10% debt to the franchise from which it was apparently spun.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
No, your post was modded down because, like the AC above you, you droned on about a totally irrelevant topic.
If you read halopedia, the lore behind the haloverse is just as storied as that of wow, if not more so.
I think an MMO, or at least an rpg of some kind, would be a great means of guiding people through the story.
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The only possible explanation that I can think of would be an attempt to leverage Live subscriptions further... but come on, really.
There are simply too many MMOs chasing too few players. A few years ago the economy could have sustained more MMOs, but not now.
Halo is sweet, but what about piloting new mechs? It's been years since MS bought Mechwarrior. What's with the same old '04 Mechs that don't even run reliably on Vista. MW4 is 2,000 internet years old. That sucks.
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Well, everyone being "super" worked perfectly fine for COH / COV.
The "normal" people in the COH / COV universe are the minions, the victims, etc. The civillians don't even have a level, in fact.
According to Statesman's intentions at one point, it would take about 3 minions _and_ a lieutenant to be a 50%-50% fight against a player. You know, better have an inspiration (potion) or two, if it starts going downhill. Bosses are nastier, but realistically only elite bosses are any danger to a hero. I've soloed elite bosses with a scrapper.
The trick there is that the minions _are_ generated in groups. Even the filler in a mission, if you solo it, routinely come in groups of 3 minions or 2 minions and a lieutenant, and now and then you face 2 groups at the same time. In a full 8-man group, you could face platoon-sized opposition.
The end boss can jolly well an elite boss if you solo it, or an archvillain / superhero if you're in a group. The latter are bad news, usually. You need the tank, and healer, and debuffer, and all that jazz to take them down.
Basically it manages to be challenging even if every single player is "super".
I find that that does a perfectly fine job of, well, having everyone be far above average. The roles below average are reserved for NPCs. There are thousands of NPCs there, whose role, really, is to provide the contrast and show how far above average you are.
I think the same could apply to any other genre.
- You could have everyone be Conan, or, heck, be Hercules himself. You don't _have_ to be yet another soldier. The common cannon fodder can be the NPCs. You could be the elite guy who dispatches common recruits in groups of 3 at a time, which is just as well, because they're spawned in groups.
- You could have a MMO where everyone is a Jedi. And I mean the demi-god Jedi of the original trilogy, not the toned down version in games, which are no better than someone playing a trooper. You could have each player parry blaster bolts and mangle 3 stormtroopers at a time, and, again, it only means you'll have to generate those stormtroopers in groups of 3. Have make each player class be a Jedi class (e.g., melee = Jedi guardian, etc) and let the common thrash be NPCs.
Etc.
It even allows for interesting classes like COV's Mastermind. It's a class which isn't "super" by itself, but can walk around with 6 (or a couple of combinations even 7 or 8) minions.
Again, that can apply to any setting. In a medieval setting, that could mean you can play a mercenary captain, if you don't want to be the burly super-human barbarian, or in a SF setting you could be an officer.
So basically, yes you _can_ let everyone play a spartan or anything else. Why not? If you're one in a million, even in modern day Earth, there'd be 6000 just like you. If you're as l33t as to be one in a _billion_, a planet like Coruscant would have a hundred natives like that, and the galaxy would have millions. It's plenty to populate a MMO server, and then some.
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I would have hoped that Halo Wars Was an RTS. hehe. actually when i first saw the trailler it could have been a kicked ass RTS.
...you never played Planetside? That worked just fine. Something like that with the Halo universe would be equally pretty damn cool.
MMOs don't just have to be about farming the same mob over and over with a wizard or whatever.
It's just as well they canceled it.
Who wants to pull out their favorite BFG, and suddenly sees it takes 6 shots to kill a rat?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I think a Halo MMO (in it's loosest terms) would be great if they kept the FPS shooter portion, removed any dice roll mechanics, and switched it to a planet-sized tiered RvR world with capturable points and scenarios, ala Warhammer Online. But leave it on a console.
Maybe make leveling not so stat focused, more like training areas where you cut your teeth with a boot camp, then some simple NPC skirmishes, then into low-level scenarios, and then up to full battlefield situations. Each tier lets you earn your right to man different vehicles. Quests obviously lend themselves to missions, but you'd definitely get rid of collection quests and kill quests should be kept at a minimum. Would probably have to use the scenarios more with the 'capture this base', or 'defend the workers', etc. The xp you earn from these leads to promotions, the ability to command NPCs, the ability to set rally points in the scenarios, etc. Very similar to the rank ups in the newer battlefield games. Maybe have specializations, like engineering, which allows the users to set up defenses like platforms and turrets.
Most of the world would be instanced, like Guild Wars, with the results helping shift the influence of the faction in the area, like WAR. I think the FPS fans would probably love being able to affect the outcome of a world.
Damn, I want to play that game now.
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