Bungie: Oh! The IW situation is cool, let's to go Activision

[deceiver]

http://ca.kotaku.com/5527119/halo-devel ... activision

Bungie, the studio that created the Halo franchise, will be partnering with Activision for an "exclusive, worldwide partnership" the developer revealed this morning. The partnership will last for the next ten years.

Bungie was founded in 1991 and was purchased by software giant Microsoft in 2000, but parted with the company in October 2007. After the split, Microsoft created a subsidiary to handle now owns the rights to the Halo franchise — a franchise that Bungie created.

According to the official press release, "Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property."

"We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise," said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie in the official release. "From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."

"Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade," stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. "Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry's best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities."

Bungie is currently working on Halo: Reach for Microsoft Game Studios. The title is expected to be one of the biggest titles released this year. Beta begins today.

We need ourselves a facepalm smiley.

[sarge mat]

From what I can gather Activision will more or less just handle the publishing and won't have any say as to what Bungie will make and Bungie will have the IP. As I big fan of their games I am happy enough really just means they now should come to PS3 and hopefully back to PC/MAC.

ps: bungie forums are a fun read right now

[Skacky]

This should do the trick for the facepalming.

[FrieChamp]

Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property.

So it is not quite the same as with IW, still the timing is interesting I agree

[Sentura]

haha, idiots.

[-HP-]

[Minos]

[Pampers]

"...it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."

[Taylor]

Top brass must've got some serious money.

[Grinwhrl]

Top brass must've got some serious money.

Exactly, IW's moneysss

(kidding of course)

[Steppenwolf]

Wouldn't be surprised if if Bungee is working on CoD then. They speak about a new IP in the article but i will believe it when i see it.

[-HP-]

Wouldn't be surprised if if Bungee is working on CoD then.

lol, I want a bit of what you're having Stepp, seems like good shit! No way on earth Bungie is going to adopt an overrated IP like CoD.

I'm pretty sure Bungie will work on a brand new IP. I'm sure there's gonna be new CoDs in the future (other than the ones Treyarch are making) but it aint gonna be Bungie to develop them, that's for sure.

Anyway, let's see what will come out of this.

[Steppenwolf]

It's all about money sometimes. If this wasn't the case they wouldn't make a deal with a company like Activision, ignoring everything that just happend with IW.

And how is CoD an overrated IP from a buisness perspective? It's a money printing machine. Overrated in other aspects i would agree with you happily but this barely has any weight for big companys making deals.

[-HP-]

Yes, you got a point there. But It's Bungie we're talking about here man, makers of the games industry colossus Halo IP, why would they want to grab someone else IP to make a buck when they own one of the most lucrative IP's on this industry?

It's true, it is all about money, but gamers get fed about about sequels as well, no matter how much they love the game, and developers should know this.

I'm a MGS fan, and I hope to god there's not gonna be another sequel now, it's enough and I hope the developers stick their neck out for once and try something else, same for Bungie.

[KungFuSquirrel]

Bungie wouldn't buy back their independence from MS to go work on someone else's property. It's also in Activision's best interests to continue to develop COD internally. They'll use Treyarch and Sledgehammer for that. Maybe someone else now. Who knows. Bungie won't be doing COD either way.

As far as them making a deal with Activision, they'd have been working on this for months, long before the IW issues came to light (though there may still be some Bungie employees having the same reaction many of us are). In addition, they probably get a far better deal comparatively by a) not being an internally owned studio and b) being far more established than IW was at the time that they joined.

I still think this is a terrible idea - there's a reason id split from Activision as they began developing Rage. Activision's interests will always be with their internally developed products first and foremost, at the expense of third-party projects.