The rumours were true all along; Microsoft has finally come out and confirmed that Halo dev Bungie is to embark on a path to become an independent company.
Microsoft will retain an "equity interest" in Bungie, at the same time continuing its publishing agreement between for the now Microsoft-owned Halo IP as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.
It sounds like an acceptable compromise for both companies then; Bungie keeps making Xbox 360 games - but not just the ones MS wants it to make. As an independent company Bungie will be able to make the games it wants to make, without (as much) influence from the platform holder.
"Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in 'Halo' becoming an enduring mainstream hit," said Shane Kim, corporate vp of Microsoft Game Studios.
"While we are supporting Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our 'Halo' entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the 'Halo' universe.
"We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through 'Halo'-related titles and new IP created by Bungie."
"This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games," said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie.
"We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios; and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through 'Halo' and beyond."
The studio's new found freedom will almost definitely lead to a new non-Halo franchise cropping up soon - and perhaps even a return to the PC platform. And seeming as Microsoft still has a stake in the developer we doubt Bungie will be working on PS3 or Wii anytime soon.
We can't wait to see what it comes up with now that the MS shackles have been unlocked...
Hopefully it means Bungie will go back to their roots and their next game will release on Windows and Mac simultaneously, rather than shoddy ports years later!
As you have no doubt read on the web today, Microsoft Corp. and Bungie Studios, have reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement – starting immediately, Bungie will become an independent company and will retain a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for “Halo” titles. The new structure became effective on Oct. 1, 2007. The official blurb follows, but since you’re a valuable part of our community, we thought we’d sum it up simply and concisely.
Bungie has long been built on creativity, originality and the freedom to pursue ideas. Microsoft agreed, and rather than stifle our imagination, they decided it was in both our best interests to unleash it. We’ll continue to make Xbox 360 games, and we’ll continue to make amazing games for MGS. In that regard, nothing has changed. All that has changed is that now Bungie Studios is once again, the property of the folks of Bungie Studios. Microsoft is and will continue to be, a brilliant, inventive and creatively collaborative publishing partner. Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won’t see much, if any difference, for a while unless you come to work for us, that is – we’re hiring at http://www.bungie.net/inside/jobs.aspx
So, their first PS3-exclusive title will be.....Jalo. It's basically about a large-bottomd latino singer saving the earth from an epidemic of laringitis.
It won't be possible on the Wii due to the huge amount of polygons required to recreate her gigantic bottom.
So, their first PS3-exclusive title will be.....Jalo. It's basically about a large-bottomd latino singer saving the earth from an epidemic of laringitis.
It won't be possible on the Wii due to the huge amount of polygons required to recreate her gigantic bottom.
forgive me for that, its late on a friday afternoon
So in other words the only thing thats changed is that Bungie can make the games it wants to make rather than MS forcing them to pump out Halo games. Apart from that Bungie will remain 360 exclusive but no doubt release future games on PC as well. Not exactly the shocking news the article title suggested...
Some of their staff left ages ago (some of whom made Stubbs the Zombie if i remember) because of creative issues. This is good news for 360 owners in a way as Halo is guaranteed to be a MS series and Bungie will be free to explore some different design ideas. Win Win as far as i can see.
Now lets see how long it is before the usual Bungie hating/Fanboy loonies claim this as the death bell for MS....
Microsoft must have profited from this. There is no way that MS would simply relinquish control of a company like Bungie. The Halo property is only ever going to remain within MS control. I think that 'equity interest' still means that MS still own Bungie lock, stock and two smoking Halo shotgun barrels. But I think this is a compromise to prevent the talent at Bungie jumping ship and forming their own game studio, much like what happened at Rare.
It's actually a very clever move from MS. Keep a talented game studio as pretty much a 2nd party developer. Ensure that the staff that make the company what it is remain in place, but let them have a little freedom to develop whatever title they want.
So this means instead of producing crap games within a specific series, Bungie can go back to making their own games. Gee whizz I'm so excited, what with their track record for quality: Marathon, Myth, Oni, Halo. Ok so that was total sarcasm. They will continue to suck. Bungie games are average at best, awful at worst. All of them. Not a loss for MS, not a gain for anyone else.
Seems a bit unfair though. "Ok Microsoft, we'll join you. You can fund our most popular titles and get us recognition and acclaim. Ok, now that we have that, goodbye. We're off to make Oni 2 or a sequel to one of the other crap games we've made, which basically opens up our entire portfolio." Bit of a harsh post, but I really do think that Bungie games suck. Marty O'Donnell is the only member of the team that has created anything worthwhile in the last 5 years. The soundtrack to Halo is it's strongest feature.
So this means instead of producing crap games within a specific series, Bungie can go back to making their own games. Gee whizz I'm so excited, what with their track record for quality: Marathon, Myth, Oni, Halo. Ok so that was total sarcasm. They will continue to suck. Bungie games are average at best, awful at worst. All of them. Not a loss for MS, not a gain for anyone else.
Seems a bit unfair though. "Ok Microsoft, we'll join you. You can fund our most popular titles and get us recognition and acclaim. Ok, now that we have that, goodbye. We're off to make Oni 2 or a sequel to one of the other crap games we've made, which basically opens up our entire portfolio." Bit of a harsh post, but I really do think that Bungie games suck. Marty O'Donnell is the only member of the team that has created anything worthwhile in the last 5 years. The soundtrack to Halo is it's strongest feature.
Woooow!!! Absolutely brutal! Shame it's a bitter view of a games company that is a lot more respected than you will ever be posting crap like that.
Back to realistic conversation, I some what agree with falloutwarchief. Halo is the only decent series of games that Bungie have made. Of course they have spent about 8 years working on that series so they have all that experience to put to use on other projects now. The only real problem for them is they won't have the funding of MS for games outside of the Halo series and the pressure will be on to show they aren't a one series company. I for one hope they deliver the goods as they have been a really solid series over the years and haven't crumbled under the pressure that gets piled on when creating the Halo games.
So this means instead of producing crap games within a specific series, Bungie can go back to making their own games. Gee whizz I'm so excited, what with their track record for quality: Marathon, Myth, Oni, Halo. Ok so that was total sarcasm. They will continue to suck. Bungie games are average at best, awful at worst. All of them. Not a loss for MS, not a gain for anyone else.
Seems a bit unfair though. "Ok Microsoft, we'll join you. You can fund our most popular titles and get us recognition and acclaim. Ok, now that we have that, goodbye. We're off to make Oni 2 or a sequel to one of the other crap games we've made, which basically opens up our entire portfolio." Bit of a harsh post, but I really do think that Bungie games suck. Marty O'Donnell is the only member of the team that has created anything worthwhile in the last 5 years. The soundtrack to Halo is it's strongest feature.
Woooow!!! Absolutely brutal! Shame it's a bitter view of a games company that is a lot more respected than you will ever be posting crap like that.
Much of a fanboy bazzatuk? I agree with falloutwarchief- Bungie games are crap.
So this means instead of producing crap games within a specific series, Bungie can go back to making their own games. Gee whizz I'm so excited, what with their track record for quality: Marathon, Myth, Oni, Halo. Ok so that was total sarcasm. They will continue to suck. Bungie games are average at best, awful at worst. All of them. Not a loss for MS, not a gain for anyone else.
Seems a bit unfair though. "Ok Microsoft, we'll join you. You can fund our most popular titles and get us recognition and acclaim. Ok, now that we have that, goodbye. We're off to make Oni 2 or a sequel to one of the other crap games we've made, which basically opens up our entire portfolio." Bit of a harsh post, but I really do think that Bungie games suck. Marty O'Donnell is the only member of the team that has created anything worthwhile in the last 5 years. The soundtrack to Halo is it's strongest feature.
Woooow!!! Absolutely brutal! Shame it's a bitter view of a games company that is a lot more respected than you will ever be posting crap like that.
Amen to that. Mind you the torrent of pap that Fallout has spouted pales into insignificance when you look at the sales figures. Really don't think Bungie would care what one small minded bloke thinks of Halo- especially one as bitter and opinionated as Fallout!
I loved it and I hope to be playing many more Bungie titles in the future. Disagree with me? Then jog on.
I agree, Bungie have made some true turkeys. Halo was brilliant but they slaughtered the concept with Halo 2 and 3. Halo 3 isn't good enough to sell Xbox360's in the numbers the Microsoft gaming division needs to turn a profit. It's only a matter of time before Microsoft dump that waste of money Rare as well. After all, they now have to pay for all those Zunes they're manufacturing in China! Wonder will they over heat and fail as well.
Anyway this "new" structure does not change much at all as MS still pretty much has first refusal on Bungie's games & by the sounds of it will act as publishers for their future titles on PC & 360 so I dont believe there will be any Bungie titles on PS3 or Wii anytime soon if ever at all.
It sounds like they just gotten bogged down with Halo & wanted a change of pace & this restructuring allows them to do that so good luck to them it will be very interesting to see what comes from them next.
I agree, Bungie have made some true turkeys. Halo was brilliant but they slaughtered the concept with Halo 2 and 3. Halo 3 isn't good enough to sell Xbox360's in the numbers the Microsoft gaming division needs to turn a profit. It's only a matter of time before Microsoft dump that waste of money Rare as well. After all, they now have to pay for all those Zunes they're manufacturing in China! Wonder will they over heat and fail as well.
ALL the Halo games have been amazing. Of course all of Bungie's games before Halo were crap but like I stated, Bungie have worked for around 8 years on the Halo series so hopefully that experience will be put to good use on future games. As for Rare, I can't believe people still critize them. MS are basically using them to make games that will draw in the casual audience or gamers that like games created in the Nintendo style. Ok, Grabbed by the Ghoulies sucked but PDZ was decent, Kameo was great and Viva Pinata rocked. I can assure you that if Kameo and Viva Pinata were on Wii then everyone would be raving about Rare. The only problem is that the majority of 360 owners don't like the style of games Rare offer. The 'kiddy' art style puts alot of people off.
So, their first PS3-exclusive title will be.....Jalo. It's basically about a large-bottomd latino singer saving the earth from an epidemic of laringitis.
It won't be possible on the Wii due to the huge amount of polygons required to recreate her gigantic bottom.
forgive me for that, its late on a friday afternoon
That was very inspired actually Chris! Try to get it published in a magazine.
This official confirmation proves that very little has changed.
Consider these facts:
(1) Although Microsoft allowed Bungie to become an Independent Developer, we now know that Microsoft is still the largest equity shareholder in Bungie.
This means that Microsoft still plays a very key role in the life of Bungie.
(2) The Development company, Bungie, makes it 100% clear that Microsoft Game Studios is still the Publisher of games created by Bungie.
(3) Bungie will remain in the state of Washington, very close to Microsoft. Obviously this is because the two will still be working as closely as ever.
(4) Microsoft still owns the Intellectual Property rights to the Halo franchise. Halo 3 may be the last game in the Halo trilogy with the current story, but that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be other Halo games with other characters. Perhaps there might even be other games with Master Chief, but not necessarily fighting the Covenant.
(5) Bungie wants to work on "New" Intellectual Properties...From Microsoft's point of view that probably was a financial risk--a poor decision, because the constant release of Halo games is a guaranteed success. Allowing Bungie to control their own fate like this makes it so the financial risk is removed, and it actually allows an opportunity for growth and improved performance to occur.
(6) Some of the members of Bungie have actually become part of Microsoft Game Studios. So, when Microsoft Game Studios eventually publishes the next Halo game, it will still have members of the original Bungie team as the lead designers.
(7) Just to confirm, Microsoft still owns the Halo intellectual property rights, and will work with Bungie on future Halo games. All games created by Bungie in the future will be for Microsoft platforms with Microsoft Game Studios as the Publisher. The difference is that Bungie will own the intellectual property rights and have a larger earnings potential, which is fine by Microsoft because it will motivate Bungie to always do their best in creating games for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows.
This new business agreement makes it so Bungie can own the stuff they create from this point forward, and potentially have significantly greater financial earnings, since they will own all of the property. That form of potential for greater earnings will motivate the staff of Bungie to make sure and do the best job possible on the work they are doing. Then, once the work is complete Microsoft will benefit because Xbox 360 and Games for Windows are the platforms that will receive the content.
I honestly think this was an excellent business move, considering that Bungie was so insistent on creating new content. In reality, very little has changed because the Xbox 360 is still the primary development platform...the only thing that has changed is who will own the new Intellectual Properties that Bungie creates.
This sounds like a married couple who after sleeping together in the same bed, decide that sleeping in the same bed isnt what they want anymore and instead of getting a divorce, they simple move into different rooms in the house.
MS will publish all future bungie games, bungie will be able to create new IP for the first time since the mid 90's when they came up with the halo idea. MS get said games and will be able to make money on them, bungie get a few years off from doing halo games, afterall halo wars is being made by emsemble (another MS company).
Bungie can keep alot more rights to new games and merchendising now aswell, MS still have the options to buy up any more new big things bungie comes up with, ms still owns bungie studios, they have just released control of it and became non excutives.
Bungie dont need to make halo 4 as their next game, as MS would have them do right now.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
woot!!
