LogInSandy Petersen stated that the game and studio were shut down when Mattrick decided it would be more beneficial for him personally to do so.
As if the Halo community needed any more drama, it got exactly that over the weekend when Sandy Petersen, former Ensemble Studios Game Designer and Level/Game Designer of the OG 1993 Doom, unexpectedly revealed why both Ensemble and its unreleased MMO set in the Halo universe, codenamed Titan, were both inexplicably shut down.
Halo Studios
As shared by Petersen in a Twitter thread, the game's development was moving along steadily, with all quest lines finalized and homes for all species completed, and Ensemble and its parent company, Microsoft, estimated it would earn at least $1.1 billion once finished.
The issue, however, was that the studio also estimated it would take 3.5 years to complete the game, which apparently didn't sit well with Microsoft's President of Interactive Entertainment Business and Xbox head at the time, Don Mattrick, whom you might know from the viral 2013 "no internet? buy 360" clip, often cited as one of the factors behind Xbox One's poor launch.
According to Petersen, Mattrick's personal bonus was tied to Microsoft's gaming revenue over three years, and with the game's 3.5-year development timeline, he allegedly decided to simply shut down Ensemble and cancel the Halo MMO instead of paying for the studio, prioritizing his own financial benefit instead of that of the entire company.
"All he lost was a game studio who never sold less than 3 million copies of everything we made," Petersen writes. "I don't believe he did justice to Microsoft stockholders but hey – Don started as an EA hatchet man so what would you expect?"
While the story of corporate greed destroying what could've been a fantastic game has resonated with many, some have also scrutinized it and questioned the accuracy and honesty of Petersen's account, pointing out the discrepancy in his claim that they "started planning in 2008."
The thing is, back in 2008, when news of Ensemble's then-impending closure first emerged and the community first learned about Titan, it was reported that the game had entered development as early as April 2006 and was shut down sometime in mid-to-late 2007, making Petersen's 2008 planning claim sound rather odd.
Nevertheless, even if the former designer misremembered the dates, and we accept April 2006 as the actual start of development, Don Mattrick had been a Microsoft executive since February 2006 – still consistent with Petersen's suggested reason for Titan's cancellation. At the moment, Mattrick himself has not responded to the allegation.
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