GamePlay Unlimited

The news that Microsoft was closing Age of Empires and Halo Wars producer Ensemble shocked quite a few people, but it also allowed the press to do some digging through their skeleton-ridden closets, and Gamasutra found some very interesting things. According to Gamasutra , from 2006-2007 Ensemble was working on a MMO based in the Halo universe. The studio had even been hirring for an MMO project in early 2006. According to the website, the MMO was most likely internally cancelled in mid to late 2007 for reasons unknown. As you can see from the images and concepts, the Halo MMO had a very similar layout to most MMOs out now including World of Warcarft. Talents at the bottom, health and "mana" at the top left among other similarities. One can begin to wonder, what if this had been completed? I guess we will never know.

In an interview with GI.biz , Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft Game Studios, let slip that there are more halo games coming being worked on by "more than two or three teams." Now whether this means separate games or one game is left to be decided but rest assured, Master Chief and the Halo universe are coming back. " Q: So with the Age franchise, there's a strong echo of Halo, in that it's something you retain the rights to - you just don't need to own the company that's working on it? Phil Spencer: Well, there's more than one team building Halo games right now. There are more than two or three teams building Halo things right now. Some of them we will own, some of them we won't. It's never been, for me, about who you own or don't own - it's about working with the best creative talent in the industry." It seems by the phrase "some of them we will own, some of them we won't" that Bungie may be in on new Halo as wel...