Before you scoff give it a look see, I certainly changed my mind.




https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VZB8d11d9go




History:



For those who are not aware "MEGA BLOKS" or simply "MEGA" is a Canadian childrens toy company (subsidery of mattel). Most commonly known for their construction sets not many are aware that they also produce a set of video game brick themed toy products based upon many popular franchises including the likes of: COD, World of War craft, Need for Speed and many more.

This officially licensed brand inspired construction set trend first began with a Halo themed line originally referred to as "Halo Wars Mega Bloks" although after the second generation of toys rolled off the assembly line the name was cut short to simply "Halo Mega Bloks" perhaps to avoid confusion with the specific RTS title "Halo Wars".

Initially reactions to this product were mixed citing poor quality as the main complaint although much praise was also given thanks to the inherent freedom and creativity MEGA incorporated with their early products, in particularly with their figurines.

As time rolled on build quality improved drastically and so to did the scope and imagination of the play sets. Whilst there is no accepted core canon style theme to the franchise it is widely accepted that any thing and everything that was portrayed in the original console games could appear in your very own living room. This includes popular vehicles such as the pelican, wraith, shortsword to specific characters such as the master chief, flood, elites and various special and popular armour configurations.

Eventually It would seem that the positive interest for the brand at some point led to talks to create a halo universe themed game which focused heavily upon the real life construction aspect of the toys. Though some have criticized that the game it'self would simply have be an offshoot of the well known LEGO franchise of super hero games reactions have bordered closer to enthusiasm as opposed to the expected criticism of brand emulation.

Game info:

It is believed that the game could have shipped around late 2013 as the studio responsible for it would have been wrapping up development around september - november. The studio it's self "N-Space" went bankrupt in early of 2016. It's history mainly covered ports for AAA-titles for the Nintendo DS and the Wii.

Due to it's speculated release date one can only assume that the Xbox 360 was the target platform.

Contrary to previous installmemts this particular title looks to have been designed from the get go to cater predominately to a third person style of playing, very similar as stated above to the commercial line of LEGO games.

It's unknown why this particular project never reached fruition though some suggest that the avenue of targeting a younger market could upset it's current consumer group, others point out at the time Micrsoft may have wanted to focus it's attentions on the Xbox One.

As you would expect art work varies with one common thread being an emphasis on the freedom to "create" as the slogan below denotes.

Yeah well, this really gives us a hint at how the halo franchise is managed by Microsoft, and that is poorly, poorlier than our lowest expectations...

Tons of money wasted in some useless efforts (this game, the Halo MMO and the first failed attempt to make a Halo movie and the soon to be announced to be scraped Spielberg TV show) and few efforts focused on what should really be the focal point of the franchise, the actual FPS games, Microsoft killed Fable, they just announced that they also killed Scalebound more recently, their way of managing a franchise is not in focused and devoted efforts, it's throwing money everywhere hoping some cashback on it...
Edited by Idaho on Jan 9, 2017 at 07:10 PM

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/f9237adeaf1742c09de144d7bf3f7507/topics/a-note-from-bonnie-ross-about-the-haggar-project/261e7b32-eb42-4c30-abdb-3a18cc8199b4/posts

The reason for it's cancellation was because it was just an idea and a small collaboration with MEGA Construx, 343 has prototyped/planned and scrapped possibly hundreds of Halo games that we will never actually find out about. (Interesting note, iirc the Halo 5 we ended up getting was originally intended to be a spin off to transition into the real Halo 5, but they decided to merge the project and now we have the game we have, sadly.)

The reception has been extremely positive, and strangely enough 343 is allowing people to suggest ideas and give feedback on this game, implying that it might come back sooner than you think.

In my opinion, it looks great, it might have also just been poor timing because the Xbox One had just came out when this game was cancelled, not to mention it was running on Unreal Engine 3, with Unreal 4 being the new standard but I imagine had this gone further it could have been transitioned into Blam!.



This is pretty wrong, yes it's been well established that Microsoft cannot manage a franchise but this is not the reason.

Scalebound was cancelled because the developers took too much time off with the project, and some of them had to stop for mental health reasons, btw.

Microsoft and 343 mess with new ideas all the time, it's the only way to expand the franchise, as I mentioned earlier, there's potentially hundreds of Halo games cancelled that we will never actually find out about unless a leak like this happens again.

Microsoft has the money to take the franchise wherever they want, not to mention they have seperate teams for this that are in no way invading the status of the main franchise. Some people are interested in other kinds of experiences besides shooters, btw, and this is no exception.
Edited by MEGA_VKNG on Jan 9, 2017 at 08:01 PM

Why is everyone so stupid to say this thing was cancelled. Can people not read? It was a prototype and a pitch. Not something that was ever planned to be a retail title.

Because it was developed way higher than a standard pitch normally is. Also because its easier to say "I think it was scrapped/cancelled because..." instead of "I think the pitch for this game was rejected because...

Things like this are not uncommon. Also no one here is saying they "think" not there is a need to think when Bonnie Ross is saying exactly what it is, an idea that was pitched they decided to not go through with. In order for something to be cancelled it has to be planned to be released.

You clearly missed the point that was being made

I wonder if straying too close into LEGO's turf was a contributing factor too....

Oh and the cancelled thing is half a hype builder and half an inside joke between me and Mega Sea- wait a minute!




MegaSean




MegaSean



Edited by Super Flanker on Jan 10, 2017 at 04:28 AM

That's not funny.

yeah well that's exactly what I'm saying here, they just think money is enough, having money does not solve the problem of the lack of focus and devotion to the franchise, I doubt anyone who cherish Halo as the good FPS franchise that it is (and not as the horrible cross media franchise it's claiming to be) would really enjoy making or playing that game.

You can have the best racing car you want if you're not a pilot or don't have a good pilot for it, the car won't do any good...
Edited by Idaho on Jan 10, 2017 at 12:49 PM

I personally love halo and a lot of it has influenced my design decisions as I go on with game design stuff, and honestly I would love to play that game. It looks like it'd be fun to mess around with.

This game looked like decent, simple fun.

For anyone wondering what 343i's stand point is on "Haggar":

Thanks Bonnie.

update:




More footage has been released which includes a decent chunk of gameplay:


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oBlne2pXpVo&feature=youtu.be


In addition to the follow up video more intel has been disclosed.

Whilst it is important to understand that project "Haggar" was only ever a prototype, it has been revealed that now defunct developer N-Space worked for at least 10-months on the game. Adding to that Andrew Borman has stated that N-Space had a contract for the title with Microsoft.

He further claims that N-Space were not the only company to have proposed a Mega Bloks Halo themed title to MS which isn't particularly surprising as pitches and ideas erupt on an almost conintuous basis within the industry.

What is surprising however is that developer N-Space may not have been aware that project "Haggar" would ultimately fail to launch into a fully fledged product owing to various "sources" which state this may have occured:

"after a period of a month or two where Microsoft simply went silent and wasn't talking to N-Space anymore."


After analysing the video further it would seem that the games narrative may have leant towards Halo 4 seeing as though most of the content featured seems to reflect only products from the 4th main Halo title (weapons, vehicles, armour).


Furthermore the "Siege" mode looks to be heavily influenced by a similar style of game mode called "Horde" which featured in all of the Gears Of War titles. The obvious key objective for "Siege" is to survive waves of onslaught which shares similar traits to "Firefight" though the key difference being that it would seem a player would be able to construct fortifications and other defenses against their virtual foes.

How this system factually works is unknown and since this is all THEORY one could guess that after attaining a certain number of points based on an awards system which could be affected by killing or being killed the player could then choose to spend their "loot" on weapons, vehicles, turrets and more.

Eagle eyed fans might also point out that the footage that has been available to us so far displays mainly Covenant aggressors combined with a forerunner'esque environment lending more credit to the theory that the singleplayer mode at least may have revolved around the events that occured within Halo 4.


Finally I should also point out for those unaware that Microsoft/343i are accepting suggestions to create a Halo themed game which would appear to a younger audience. So if you have any ideas there maybe a possibilty that they could reach fruition in the future.
Edited by Super Flanker on Jan 11, 2017 at 12:06 PM
Edited by Super Flanker on Jan 11, 2017 at 12:16 PM