Editing Titan (canceled game)

{{Status|RealWorld}}

[[File:MMO Interface Prototype 1.jpg|300px|thumb|Screenshot mock-up, with ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]'' HUD superimposed.]]

[[File:MMO Interface Prototype 2.jpg|300px|thumb|Another interface prototype.]]

By [[2004 (real world)|2004]], development on the project had begun fully, with a budget of around $90 million USD.{{Ref/Reuse|interview1}} To support the operations of such a large scale project, a new 60,000 square-foot campus was commissioned for construction.{{Ref/Reuse|ensembletour}}{{Ref/Reuse|interview2}} Around 40 staff in three teams worked on ''Titan'' while other Ensemble staff focused on developing ''Halo Wars'', though one team remained on the project for six months.{{Ref/Reuse|shacknews}}{{Ref/Reuse|oneremains}} During the early stages of ''Titan''{{'}}s development, Ensemble took inspiration from ''[[Wikipedia:World of Warcraft|World of Warcraft]]''{{'}}s general structure and gameplay.{{Ref/Site|Id=interview2|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3|Site=IncGamers3|Page=Windstorm's Dusty Monk Interview - Part One - Page 3|Detail=(Defunct, [http://web.archive.org/web/20100417090008/http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/264/windstorms-dusty-monk-interview---part-one/3 Archived])|Quote=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.}} During production, the team at Ensemble consistently did evaluations of how successful they expected the game to be; at the time the only noteworthy science fiction MMO on the market was ''[[Wikipedia:EVE Online|Eve Online]]'', which had a very different style to more conventional MMOs. The analysis', conducted in conjunction with Microsoft, used the most critical and negative calculations possible and still estimated that the ''Halo'' MMO would earn just over a billion dollars at minimum - on account of the quality of Ensemble's team and the value of the ''Halo'' intellectual property at the time. Ultimately, the project was estimated to need three and a half years to finish, {{Ref/YouTube|Id=Sandy|wNlNAlfr7Jw|Bored With Nelly|What Happened To Halo MMO Game?|Detail=An interview with Sandy Petersen, who discusses in-depth the ''Halo'' MMO's cancellation}}

''Titan'' was internally cancelled in mid-to-late 2007 with no formal announcement of its development by Microsoft.{{Ref/Site|Id=oneremains|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20153|Site=Gamasutra|Page=Exclusive: Ensemble Studios' Canceled Project Was Halo MMO}} By this time, the majority of the studio's staff were expecting the MMO to be the company's focus in the future{{Ref/Reuse|ensembletour}} and 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/Site|Id=robf1|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=https://twitter.com/xemu/status/1151680760753131520?s=19|Site=Twitter|Page=Rob Fermier|Quote=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.}} Ultimately, the planned new campus was never greenlit for construction and requests to know why ignored, until a source within Microsoft leaked that the company planned to dissolve Ensemble following the release of ''Halo Wars''.

''Titan'' was cancelled due to a shift in leadership within Microsoft, as the company saw the success of the Nintendo Wii and ultimately decided to change their shift into a more casual-friendly direction - with this came the decline of interest in the ''Titan'' project and the $90 million funding. With the cancellation of ''Titan'', the studio's staff and efforts were shifted into the ongoing ''[[Halo Wars]]'' project which released in [[2009]].{{Ref/Reuse|interview1}} Part of this shift in leadership came in 2007, when [[Wikipedia:Don Mattrick|Don Mattrick]] became the head of Microsoft Game Studios. As part of his hiring contract, Mattrick had three years to make the gaming part of Microsoft profitable which, if achieved, would see him given a substantial monetary bonus. As such, despite the potential long-term gains that the ''Halo'' MMO was forecasting, the development time was too long and wouldn't allow Mattrick to keep his bonus. Additionally, Ensemble Studios were a very expensive studio to run and Mattrick had personal investment in keeping around other studios such as [[Wikipedia:Rare (company)|Rare]] due to his personal connections - as such, he kept Ensemble around until ''Halo Wars'' released, then shut down Ensemble Studios to increase the profitability of Microsoft gaming - even at the cost of potential long-term profits. Ultimately, Mattrick never got the bonus due to his less successful endeavours with [[Xbox LIVE]].{{Ref/Reuse|Sandy}}

[[File:MMO Librarian Concept.jpg|thumb|250px|Concept art for the Librarian.]]

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.

[[Category:Titan (canceled game)| ]]

[[Category:Ensemble Studios games]]

[[Category:Cancelled games]]