Canceled Ensemble project was Halo MMO

With Ensemble now disbanded, Gamasutra reveals one of its big projects that never saw the light of day: a Halo MMO. According to various reports, it appears that the game was in development for some time during 2006 and 2007 before being canceled. Seen above, a shot of the UI and an action pose of a Spartan duel-wielding. The design, from what little we can see of it, borrows a lot from World of Warcraft's simplicity and (judging by the dual-wield screenshot) hokeyness.

We understand there are reasons for cancellations, but this seems like a money printer on par with Pokémon and Blizzard's aforementioned MMO, regardless of quality. As Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently mentioned to GamesIndustry.biz, there are "more than two or three teams" working on Halo projects at the moment, so the MMO concept might not be entirely dead.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/23/ca...-was-halo-mmo/