Titan (canceled game): Difference between revisions

{{Title|''Titan'' (canceled game)}}

{{Status|RealWorld}}

{{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/Site|Id=shacknews|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=http://www.shacknews.com/article/55941/age-of-empires-dev-ensemble|Site=Shack News|Page=Age of Empires Dev Ensemble Speaks Out on Studio Closure, Microsoft, and the Cancelled Halo MMO}}}}

'''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/Site|Id=interview1|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/2|Site=IncGamers|Page=Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 2|Quote=For two years, before we all moved onto Halo Wars, we were working on an MMO prototype, and it was codenamed Titan.|Detail=(defunct, [http://web.archive.org/web/20100417090003/http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/2 Archive])}} Following the project's cancellation in 2007, Ensemble Studios focused all of its resources into developing ''[[Halo Wars]]''.

File:MMO Species Concept.jpg|Concept art for humanity, Covenant and other miscellaneous species.

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During the game's earlier stages of development, Ensemble studios produced concept art to explore the "heroic stylised" artform employed by the game. Much of the artwork developed was done to explore what would and would not work in the final game, with no guarantee any concept design would make it to the final shipped title.{{Ref/Site|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=https://twitter.com/xemu/status/1151681062541713410|Site=Twitter|Page=Rob Fermier|Quote=BTW most of that concept art is exploration of what does, and doesn't work, in the game. It would definitely be a mistake to assume that it'd all end up in a shipping version of the game exactly like that.}} In keeping with the outlined Forerunner era-setting, much of the concept art explores designs for Forerunners and their [[Combat skin|armour]] - with one piece of art labelled as <code>The Librarian and Agent Sects</code>, depicting a potential design for the [[Librarian]].{{Ref/Generic|23_The Librarian and Agent Sects(FINAL_COLOR_SMALL).jpg|([[:File:MMO Librarian Concept.jpg|File link]])}} During the time of ''Titan''{{'}}s development, starting near the completion of ''[[Halo 2]]'' and continuing parallel to the development of ''[[Halo 3]]'', the modern ideas about the Forerunners as described in the ''[[The Forerunner Saga]]'' had not been developed yet, and as such Forerunners and humans look almost identical - deriving from the original games intention that the Forerunners and humanity were one and the same. This ''Halo 2''-era art inspiration is also reflected in the designs of [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marines]] and Brutes, both sharing their designs with their ''Halo 2'' incarnations.