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Titan (canceled game): Difference between revisions
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{{Title|''Titan'' (canceled game)}} | {{Title|''Titan MMO'' (canceled game)}} | ||
[[File:MMO_Interface_Prototype_1.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Screenshot mock-up, with ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]'' HUD superimposed.]] | [[File:MMO_Interface_Prototype_1.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Screenshot mock-up, with ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]'' HUD superimposed.]] | ||
[[File:MMO_Interface_Prototype_2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Another interface prototype.]] | [[File:MMO_Interface_Prototype_2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Another interface prototype.]] | ||
{{Quote|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. <br>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.|Dave Pottinger<ref name="shacknews">[http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble '''Shack News''': ''Age of Empires Dev Ensemble Speaks Out on Studio Closure, Microsoft, and the Cancelled Halo MMO'']</ref>}} | {{Quote|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. <br>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.|Dave Pottinger<ref name="shacknews">[http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble '''Shack News''': ''Age of Empires Dev Ensemble Speaks Out on Studio Closure, Microsoft, and the Cancelled Halo MMO'']</ref>}} | ||
'''Titan''' was the codename for a canceled ''Halo'' [[Wikipedia:Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)]] developed by [[Ensemble Studios]] between [[2004 (real world)|2004]] and [[2007 (real world)|2007]].<ref name="interview1">[http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/2 '''IncGamers''': ''Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 2''] (Dusty Monk: ''"For two years, before we all moved onto Halo Wars, we were working on an MMO prototype, and it was codenamed Titan."'')</ref> Following the project's cancellation in 2007, Ensemble Studios focused all of its resources into developing ''[[Halo Wars]]''. | '''Titan MMO''' was the codename for a canceled ''Halo'' [[Wikipedia:Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)]] developed by [[Ensemble Studios]] between [[2004 (real world)|2004]] and [[2007 (real world)|2007]].<ref name="interview1">[http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/2 '''IncGamers''': ''Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 2''] (Dusty Monk: ''"For two years, before we all moved onto Halo Wars, we were working on an MMO prototype, and it was codenamed Titan MMO."'')</ref> Following the project's cancellation in 2007, Ensemble Studios focused all of its resources into developing ''[[Halo Wars]]''. | ||
==Overview== | ==Overview== | ||
Titan was a prototype game developed to compete against [[Wikipedia:Blizzard Entertainment|Blizzard Entertainment]]'s [[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]. The project was internally cancelled in mid-to-late 2007 with no formal announcement of its development by Microsoft.<ref name="oneremains">[http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20153 '''Gamasutra''': ''Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO'']</ref> The game was to have been set in the [[Forerunner]]-era.<ref>[https://twitter.com/zaphodgjd/status/1151524900592640003 '''Twitter''': ''Graeme Devine's response''] - ''It’s long canceled along with Ensemble, was set in the age of the Forerunners.''</ref> | Titan MMO was a prototype game developed to compete against [[Wikipedia:Blizzard Entertainment|Blizzard Entertainment]]'s [[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]. The project was internally cancelled in mid-to-late 2007 with no formal announcement of its development by Microsoft.<ref name="oneremains">[http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20153 '''Gamasutra''': ''Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO'']</ref> The game was to have been set in the [[Forerunner]]-era.<ref>[https://twitter.com/zaphodgjd/status/1151524900592640003 '''Twitter''': ''Graeme Devine's response''] - ''It’s long canceled along with Ensemble, was set in the age of the Forerunners.''</ref> | ||
Around 40 staff in three teams worked on Titan while other Ensemble's staff focused on developing ''Halo Wars'', though one team remained on the project for six months.<ref name="shacknews"/><ref name="oneremains"/> During the early stages of ''Titan''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s development, Ensemble took inspiration from ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s general structure and gameplay.<ref name="interview2">[http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3 '''IncGamers''': ''Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 3''] (link defunct, archive available [http://web.archive.org/web/20100417090008/http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3 here]) - (Dusty Monk: ''"We weren't necessarily making WoW in space, but we were certainly adopting a lot of the things that we saw working in World of Warcraft and then putting it in a sci-fi genre."'')</ref> The project was said to be radically different in the later stages, exploring then-novel concepts and gameplay additions such as "heroic stylized artform" and cover system (later used in ''[[wikipedia:Star Wars: The Old Republic|Star Wars: The Old Republic]]''), and public quests (later used in ''[[wikipedia:Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning|Warhammer: Online]]'').<ref name="incgamer">[http://www.incgamers.com/News/21928/cancelled-halo-mmo-details '''IncGamers:''' ''Cancelled Halo MMO Details''] (link defunct, archive available [http://web.archive.org/web/20100415050548/http://www.incgamers.com/News/21928/cancelled-halo-mmo-details here]</ref> Instead of mana points as used in ''World of Warcraft'', a character's special ability energy was referred to as psion.<ref name="psionmana">[http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20153 '''Gamasutra''': ''Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO''] (Michael Zenke: ''"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."'')</ref> | Around 40 staff in three teams worked on Titan MMO while other Ensemble's staff focused on developing ''Halo Wars'', though one team remained on the project for six months.<ref name="shacknews"/><ref name="oneremains"/> During the early stages of ''Titan MMO''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s development, Ensemble took inspiration from ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s general structure and gameplay.<ref name="interview2">[http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3 '''IncGamers''': ''Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 3''] (link defunct, archive available [http://web.archive.org/web/20100417090008/http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3 here]) - (Dusty Monk: ''"We weren't necessarily making WoW in space, but we were certainly adopting a lot of the things that we saw working in World of Warcraft and then putting it in a sci-fi genre."'')</ref> The project was said to be radically different in the later stages, exploring then-novel concepts and gameplay additions such as "heroic stylized artform" and cover system (later used in ''[[wikipedia:Star Wars: The Old Republic|Star Wars: The Old Republic]]''), and public quests (later used in ''[[wikipedia:Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning|Warhammer: Online]]'').<ref name="incgamer">[http://www.incgamers.com/News/21928/cancelled-halo-mmo-details '''IncGamers:''' ''Cancelled Halo MMO Details''] (link defunct, archive available [http://web.archive.org/web/20100415050548/http://www.incgamers.com/News/21928/cancelled-halo-mmo-details here]</ref> Instead of mana points as used in ''World of Warcraft'', a character's special ability energy was referred to as psion.<ref name="psionmana">[http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20153 '''Gamasutra''': ''Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO''] (Michael Zenke: ''"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."'')</ref> | ||
By the time of the project's cancellation in 2007, Ensemble had a server infrastructure for the game, a ''World of Warcraft''-scale gameplay zone and many of the vehicle and gunplay mechanics in a playable state.<ref name="robf1">[https://twitter.com/xemu/status/1151680760753131520?s=19 '''Twitter''': ''Rob Fermier's response''] - ''There was a lot more than just concept art - we had a server infrastructure, a built out WoW-scale zone, lots of vehicle & gunplay mechanics adapted to MMO scale. Mind you this was all back in 2007 so at the time much of that territory was still unexplored.''</ref> | By the time of the project's cancellation in 2007, Ensemble had a server infrastructure for the game, a ''World of Warcraft''-scale gameplay zone and many of the vehicle and gunplay mechanics in a playable state.<ref name="robf1">[https://twitter.com/xemu/status/1151680760753131520?s=19 '''Twitter''': ''Rob Fermier's response''] - ''There was a lot more than just concept art - we had a server infrastructure, a built out WoW-scale zone, lots of vehicle & gunplay mechanics adapted to MMO scale. Mind you this was all back in 2007 so at the time much of that territory was still unexplored.''</ref> | ||