Der findes et muligt univers, hvor vi alle i slutningen af 00'erne og begyndelsen af 10'erne ville have spillet et Halo MMO. Ifølge Doom-leveldesigneren Sandy Petersen, som også har krediteringer på Quake og Age of Empires, arbejdede det nu lukkede Ensemble Studios nemlig på et stort onlinebaseret Halo-MMO med kodenavnet Titan - et projekt, der dog blev lukket ned for at beskytte bonusudbetalingen til den daværende Xbox-chef Don Mattrick.
I et opslag på sociale medier fortæller Petersen: "In 2008, Ensemble Studios started planning a gigantic MMO set in the Halo universe. We code-named it Titan. It was to take place tens of thousands of years ago, before the Halos were set off & destroyed all sentient life in the Galaxy."
Han tilføjer flere detaljer om spillet, blandt andet at man kunne spille som Forerunners eller Covenant, og at historien udspillede sig meget tidligt i Halo-universets tidslinje — længe før æraen med Master Chief og krigen mellem UNSC og Covenant.
Petersen forklarer videre: "You could play either as Forerunners or their enemies, the Covenant. The Flood, of course, was in the game, but not playable. We had quest lines all worked out, homeworlds for all the species, etc. etc."
Han nævner også, at Microsoft forventede, at spillet kunne indbringe helt op til 1,1 milliarder dollars - en imponerende sum, især når man tænker på, at det var i 2008.
Men projektet blev altså skrottet, og Petersen beskriver forløbet således: "It was all brought to naught when Don Mattrick realized that his stock bonus was based on the income MS had from games in 3 years.
"You see, we estimated 3.5 years to finish Titan if we did it right. And that's beyond Mattrick's drop dead date.
"So by firing ALL of Ensemble, he didn't have to pay for our expensive studio for 3 years and he didn't care about Titan.
"All he lost was a game studio who never sold less than 3 million copies of everything we made. I don't believe he did justice to MicroSoft stockholders but hey - Don started as an EA hatchet man so what would you expect?"
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Tror du, et Halo MMO kunne være blevet en stor succes - og ville du selv have spillet det?