Developer claims Halo MMO killed to protect Exec stock bonus

Back in 2005, Age of Empires developer Ensemble Studios was rumored to be developing the Halo MMO. The project ended abruptly in 2008 and Microsoft shut down the studio, but one of the MMO's developers has revealed the secrets of the failed game and why it was cancelled.

Sandy Peterson, known for his work on the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG and Doom before joining Ensemble, released Thread on X and his memories of the doomed Halo MMO, codenamed Titan. He said he was responsible for the universe-building of the project, which is set in the distant past before Halo destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.

“The lowest estimate we and Microsoft have for total gaming revenue is $1.1 billion,” Peterson claimed. Earlier reports of the MMO's cancellation backed up Microsoft's early commitment to the ambitious project, saying Titans has been allocated significant funding $90 million budget.

According to Peterson, problems arose when Don Mattrick, who was promoted to head of Xbox in 2007, “realized that his stock bonus was based on three years of Microsoft's gaming revenue.” The timing was problematic for the Titans, which Peterson said was estimated at the time to take 3.5 years to complete properly.

“This extends beyond the date of Mattrick's death,” Peterson concluded. “So by firing all of Ensemble, he doesn't have to pay for our expensive studio for 3 years, and he doesn't care about Titans anymore.” Peterson wouldn't say whether he's seen evidence of this, or if it's just his interpretation of the situation, but older reports on Ensemble's closure also points to office politics as one of the major factors in the studio's demise.

Mattrick's reign at Xbox has been largely unpopular with fans, with the executive overseeing Kinect, the much-maligned dashboard redesign, and disastrous launch Xbox One. “All he lost was a game studio, and we never sold less than 3 million copies of anything we made,” Petersen added when Ensemble closed. “I don't believe he's being fair to Microsoft shareholders, but hey – Don started out as a thug at EA, so what do you expect?”