Long before Destiny, Microsoft had its own plan for a massive online sci-fi game — a full-blown MMO set thousands of years before the Halo trilogy. Developed by Age of Empires creator Ensemble Studios, this Halo MMO, called Titan, was intended to rival the likes of World of Warcraft. But according to Doom co-creator Sandy Petersen, the project — and the studio — were both canned for one reason: an Xbox exec’s bonus.
On X, Petersen claimed that Don Mattrick, then head of Xbox, shut down Ensemble Studios to protect a personal stock bonus tied to short-term profits. According to Petersen, as part of his hiring contract, Mattrick had three years to make Microsoft’s gaming division profitable. If that goal were met, it would grant the ex-Electronic Arts executive a hefty payout.
“You see, we estimated 3.5 years to finish Titan if we did it right,” he said. “And that’s beyond Mattrick’s drop dead date. So by firing ALL of Ensemble, he didn’t have to pay for our expensive studio for 3 years and he didn’t care about Titan.”
Halo MMO was first pitched in 1998 and was given $90 million budget to rival World of Warcraft. It went through several iterations, as internally it was referred to as Orion before being renamed to Titan. After his Doom days at id Software, Petersen joined Ensemble and helped build expansions like Rise of Rome and The Conquerors before leading worldbuilding on Titan.
“You could play either as Forerunners or their enemies, the Covenant. The Flood, of course, was in the game, but not playable. We had quest lines all worked out, homeworlds for all the species, etc. etc,” he explained. Microsoft had internally projected the Halo MMO Titan to generate around $1.1 billion in revenue.
However, while Ensemble Studios was toiling hard on both Titan and the RTS spinoff Halo Wars, Microsoft suddenly shifted its focus. Inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s massive success, it too wanted to deliver a more casual gaming experience. It doesn’t help that Mattrick came and chose to save costs to save his paycheck — allegedly.
“It was all brought to naught when Don Mattrick realized that his stock bonus was based on the income MS had from games in 3 years,” Petersen added. “I don’t believe he did justice to MicroSoft’s stockholders. But hey – Don started as an EA hatchet man so what would you expect?”
Mattrick’s name was already infamous among Xbox fans before this news dropped. He was the face of the Xbox One‘s disastrous 2013 reveal, pushing mandatory Kinect integration and online-only policies. He also famously said, “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to stay connected; it’s called Xbox 360.” That PR meltdown gave PlayStation a head start that Xbox never recovered from.
In the end, Titan was axed and Ensemble dissolved after shipping Halo Wars in 2009. Leaked prototype screenshots and former dev accounts are all that remained from the $90 million project.
