Halo: Titan

*Halo: Titan*

*“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. 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.
***Halo: Titan***(also known as the ***Untitled Halo MMO***, ***Titan***, ***Orion***and the ***Orion Project***) was a planned *Halo*MMO that was in secret development before being quietly cancelled. The game would have been developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, and was hoped would compete with Blizzard's *World of Warcraft*. The game was in development from 2005 to 2007 before being cancelled. Afterwards, Ensemble Studios focused on developing *Halo Wars* instead.

## Overview

*Titan*was the codename for the *Untitled Halo MMO*; the project was never officially announced, and therefore no official name for the project was ever given. *Titan*was specifically designed to compete with Blizzard's immensely popular MMO, *World of Warcraft*. The project began development in 2005 and continued right through to 2007, even after Ensemble announced *Halo Wars*. However, due to a reorganization of Microsoft's staff, the new management did not see *Titan*as a beneficial product, and had the project silently cancelled in 2007 so that Ensemble could focus on *Halo Wars*.

Around 40 staff members in three teams worked on *Titan*whilst other Ensemble staff focused on developing *Halo Wars*, though one team remained in the project six months after. The project drew heavy inspiration from *World of Warcraft*for the basic structure and style in the earlier stages of development. The project was said to be radically different in the later stages, exploring novel concepts and gameplay additions such as "heroic stylized artform" and cover system (currently used in *Star Wars: The Old Republic*) and public quests (currently used in *Warhammer: Online*). In addition, instead of mana-points as used in *World of Warcraft*, a character's special ability is referred as psion.

## Features

The following features are based on gallery images released to the public and, as such, might not be entirely accurate.

### Classes

* **Assault**: Intended to be a human class.
* **Marine**: Intended to be a human class.
* **PSI**: Intended class, although their purpose is unknown. Possibly augmented humans.
* **Forerunner**: Intended to be a playable Forerunner class.
* **Mimic**: Unknown female humanoid figure. Concept art implies this class would have possessed shapeshifting abilities.
* **Rogue**: Intended to be a human class. Concept art helps us assume they were supposed to have expertise in stealth combat.
* **Spy**: Intended to be a human class. Concept art helps us assume they were supposed to have expertise in espionage.

### Species

* **Demons**: An unknown alien race.
* **Diggerz**: An extra-terrestrial animal creature. It appeared to be an armoured, bioluminescent biped with clawed forearms that served to improve digging capabilities, hence its name.
* **Jaggmaw Sailtail**: An animal used for transporting characters around on their backs. It bore a notable physical resemblance to the Blind Wolf.
* **Mob**: Bears a strong resemblance to Earth's boars.
* **Sentients**: Appear to be a humanoid species with mechanical attributes, such as reverse jointed limbs and visors for faces.
* **Sigma**: Decidedly human in appearance, but others have a more distinct alien feature. Male and females both had distinctive differences.

### Vehicles

* **Aardvark**: A new human vehicle.
* **2 Tickets to the Gun Show**: A police variant of the Warthog with two turrets in each back seat.
* **Grackle**: A human motorcycle.
* **Rhino**: A human gunship. Its design would eventually be used for the Sparrowhawk, and its name used for a tank, both in *Halo Wars.*
* **Runner-class transport**: A Covenant naval vessel designed to transport the Hierarchs. One of the ships of this class was named the *Throne Warden.*
* **Unnamed Scorpion Tank Variants**: Two variants of the Scorpion tank (Lash and Venom respectively) were to be featured, both of which would look more like the animal that the tank draws its name from in terms of design.
* **Forerunner Warthog**: A Forerunner vehicle that bares significant resemblance to the Warthog.
* **Unidentified Covenant Aircraft**: A Covenant aircraft that would have deployed Banshees.

### Equipment

* **Forerunner Combat Armor**: Armoured combat suit for Forerunners. However, because the Forerunners were physically similiar in appearance to humans, humans could also wear it.
* **MJOLNIR Combat Armor**: Armoured combat armor for augmented humans. Not much about its implementation in the game is known, although some concept art implied that there would be massively exaggerated designs, with one even involving an arm being replaced with a chainsaw.

## Trivia

* Although it was never revealed when the events of the MMO would take place in the *Halo*canon, Tartarus is present in the concept art of the game, insinuating that it takes place pre-*Halo 2*.

## Gallery

Concept art for the Assault classConcept art for the Marine class (1)Concept art for the Marine class (2)Concept art for the PSI class (1)Concept art for the PSI class (2)Concept art for the Forerunner class (1)Concept art for the Forerunner class (2)Concept art for the Mimic class (1)Concept art for the Mimic class (2)Concept art for the Rogue class (1)Concept art of the Rogue class (2)Concept art for the Spy classConcept art for Demons (1)Concept art for Demons (2)Concept art for DiggerzConcept art for the Jaggmaw SailtailConcept art for the MobConcept art for SentientsConcept art for Sigma (1)Concept art for Sigma (2)Concept art for Sigma (3)Concept art for Sigma (4)Concept art for the Lash Scorpion variantConcept art for the Venom Scorpion variantConcept art of Forerunner Combat Armor (1)Concept art for Forerunner Combat Armor (2)Concept art for Forerunner Combat Armor (3)Concept art for Forerunner Combat Armor (4)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (1)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (2)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (3)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (4)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (5)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (6)Concept art for MJOLNIR armor (7)A Forerunner CityCloseup on a Forerunner structureConcept art of human/Forerunner corpsesConcept art of a Spartan fighting off Covenant, dead Grunt behind herConcept art of a Spartan surrounded by FloodConcept art of Forerunner soldiersConcept art of a Spartan killing two Elites, while a Brute watchesPossible concept art of a evolutionary timetableConcept art of a SpiritFrom left to right, concept art of: An Elite Zealot, Grunt Minor, Tartarus and a Brute ChieftainConcept art of an unknown Flood form being analyzed by a Forerunner monitorConcept art of a female human channeling her psion abilitiesConcept art of a Forerunner skyline (1)Concept art of a Forerunner building close-upConcept art of a Forerunner skyline (2)Concept art of a Forerunner skyline (3)Concept art of a Forerunner skyline (4)Concept art of a Forerunner skyline (5)

## Links

### External Links

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lessons from Titan - 2 Years on a cancelled MMO
2. ↑ **Gamesutra**: *Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO*
3. ↑ Age of Empires Dev Ensemble Speaks Out on Studio Closure, Microsoft, and the Cancelled Halo MMO
4. ↑ **Kotaku**: *Halo MMO Concepts*
5. ↑ IncGamers - Cancelled Halo MMO Details