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Halo MMO had $90 million budget, canceled as Microsoft eyed 'casual, broader audience'
Over the past couple of years, we've seen dribbles of information here and there about the canceled Halo MMO, but a recent conversation IncGamers had with ex-Ensemble Studios employee Dusty Monk (yep, that's his real name) revealed not only the exorbitant cost of the planned development (three years of which took place before the game was canceled), but much, much more. First and foremost, the game's development was said to cost $90 million, as you likely inferred from the headline above. Second, the game was intended to be a "WoW killer," according to Monk. "It was absolutely going to compete against WoW. You have to remember that Ensemble came from a standpoint of being really good at competing against Blizzard Entertainment," Monk said, using the Age of Empires series as an example. Unfortunately for the folks at Ensemble working on "Titan" (the codename for the Halo MMO), the launch and subsequent blistering success of the Nintendo Wii allegedly altered the direction that Microsoft wanted to take. "Microsoft, from its gaming division, was really changing directions. They were looking really hard at the Nintendo Wii and they were really excited by the numbers that the Wii was turning. This was about the time that Microsoft decided that its Xbox platform and XBLA really needed to go more in the direction of appealing to a more casual, broader audience." Given that new direction and what Monk calls a "very expensive, very long, and very protracted" development, Microsoft eventually shut down the project. But hey, at least we got Halo Wars, right? Right?!
Former Ensemble staffer talks about cancelled Halo MMO
Here's a blast from the past for you: Halo MMO. The project from Ensemble studios -- codenamed Titan -- left a lot of disappointed fans when Ensemble closed and development was canceled. We've not heard much from that area for several months, but IncGamers got a chance today to speak to Dusty Monk for some new information on the now-defunct MMO. Dusty -- now the founder of Windstorm Studios -- was a staffer for Ensemble and pretty heavily focused on the Halo project. He's got some interesting things to say about what could have been: "We had all this incredible talent, we had the right people, the right passion, we had a phenomenally successful IP - the Halo IP." If you're a Halo fan thinking wistfully about what could have been, you'll definitely want to check out what else he had to say in this interview with IncGamers. [Thanks to Belinda for the tip!]
One Shots: Ever vigilant
If you're a huge comic-book fan, then there's definitely something to be said for playing a comic-book MMO. When you're a serious role-playing fiend who loves comic books, it's even better! Today's picturesque Champions Online One Shots comes to us from Dusty Monk; blogger, gamer, and all around geek, who captured this great image of his superhero, Stiletto, on patrol. He decided to drop us a picture postcard from her point of view: "They say crime never sleeps. Fine by me... neither do I. You want to pull something at 2:00 am? Expect to find me there. Waiting." -- Stiletto Have you captured a great moment of role-playing that you'd like to share with the rest of us? We'd love to check it out. Send it in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a note. We'll post it out here and give you the credit! %Gallery-85937%
The problem with 'exciting' starting zones
We love it when game designers make an observation that sometimes escapes us, like Dusty Monk's insightful post about the issue surrounding starting zones -- specifically in Cryptic Studio's last three games. His problem stems from the way in which the developer is responding to gamers' demands of a starting zone experience that doesn't involve a newly minted character thwacking sickly rabbits with a twig. It's an old -- almost passe -- gripe that was well founded back in the first half of the 00's. As many of you no doubt know, City of Villains, Champions Online and Star Trek Online tutorials all begin by inundating the character with chaotic immediacy, and information. Dusty's problem is the combination of these two elements. He posits that any sense of urgency is killed immediately upon the opening of a substantially novella-like text window. On the flip side of that problem, he contends that it's tough to learn a new system(s) while a Hollywoood blockbuster is taking place around you. And like any good person with an opinion, he's got a solution for the problem, too.
