Halo MMO Was Killed To Protect Exec’s Stock Bonus, Developer Claims
Back in 2005, rumors swirled of a Halo MMO in development with Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios. The project came to an abrupt end in 2008 when Microsoft shuttered the studio, however one of the developers on the MMO has spilled the beans on the lost game–and why it was cancelled.
Sandy Peterson, known for his work on the Call of Cthulu TTRPG and Doom before he moved to Ensemble, has posted a thread on X with his recollections about the doomed Halo MMO, which was codenamed Titan. He says that he was in charge of the universe-building for the project, which was going to be set in the far past before the Halos destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.
“The lowest estimate we & Microsoft had for the game’s total income was $1.1 billion,” Peterson claims. Earlier reports about the cancelled MMO backed up Microsoft’s early commitment to the ambitious project, saying that Titan had been allocated a massive $90 million budget.
