Activision Lawsuit Has Details on Bungie’s Next Game

The last thing one would expect to learn from the ongoing dispute between Activision and former Infinity Ward employees was the first concrete details on Bungie’s next game, but, well, we have 'em.

Bungie’s agreement with Activision for its next franchise is the latest document to be unsealed in the march towards the trial date for the clash, and reveals some interesting details on “codename Desiny.”

The details come courtesy of the LA Times.

Per the agreement, Destiny would be an Xbox 360 exclusive released in fall 2013, with a sequels arriving on new hardware platforms from Microsoft, Sony, and a version on PC. It specified four games, with sequels coming every other year.

In the contract, Microsoft’s next console is referred to as “Xbox 720” but I wouldn’t read into that very much.

The contract may have also changed--this went into effect in April 2010.

Bungie was also contracted to release four downloadable expansions, codenamed Comet, starting in fall 2014. If Destiny is a persistent online world as rumored, yearly expansions between major retail releases would make sense.

The agreement also makes mention of Bungie developing a reboot of Marathon, the stipulation being that “no more than 5%” of the studio’s staff could be assigned to the project.

Bungie’s contract has been brought into question because of the creative control former Infinity Ward leads Jason West and Vince Zampella gave up per its own agreement with Activision. West and Zampella’s lawyers are arguing the duo should be owed more money for giving up that control.

The case goes to trial on May 29.

I wonder if the 360 exclusive is based on Microsoft getting first shot at Bungie's games.

Very curious to see what this turns out to be.

That's an odd place for that kind of info to show up.

I am all for more Marathon

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

Honest question - do you choose to write with spell-check turned off Pat?

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? 
Fuck off Bungie.

Hmmm. This is relevant to my interests.

.

I hope this is good, I love Halo, and Bungie became a big part of my life because of that, I will continue to support them as I know they will continue to make great games.

Very weird the first would be an Xbox exclusive.

There is an error in the article. Destiny #1 is to appear on 360 and 720, according to the document.

MARATHON

@AhmadMetallic: Man, someone's bitter.

We barely know anything about Bungie's game outside of what was specified in this legal documentation. And as Patrick noted, things could have changed between the date of Bungie's initial contract with Activision and the present.

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

... What?

Patrick, read your articles over before you post them, I catch 2 or 3 spelling errors in nearly every one.

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

... What?

@patrickklepek Your Avatar creeps me out.

'codename Desiny'

'with a sequels'

Maybe do a read through of that stuff before you hit 'pbulsih' Tricky.

@AhmadMetallic: Just about every major gaming company has started to use the line "Gaming as a service."

@AhmadMetallic: Man either your account is a character or you're one paranoid, angry dude. You don't even know how it will be implemented or what the so called micro-transactions is going to be and only speculating on stupid contract details. Even if its sooooo bad, it's simple just don't buy the game.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@evanbower said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

... What?

http://www.giantbomb.com/xbox-360/60-20/activisionbungie-title-destiny-details-leaked/35-547725/#9

WOWREALLY?

Have we gone from instantly judging a game off E3 trailers to judging a game that may or may not exist from a lawsuit which has details from something from 2010?

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

Yup. That's EXACTLY where all this is going.

Those don't sound like very good terms. If I were a developer I probably wouldn't sign that unless I were desperate, and given Bungie's pedigree I don't see why they would be.

I don't like the idea of planning so many sequels and downloads for a game that hasn't really shown itself yet.

hmmmm.....going to have to come out or at least be revealed soon if they want to ship on the 360

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

You don't even know anything about the game. Don't be a wiener.

This all seems so fucked up...

Probably won't be playing this, but still interested in seeing what Bungie will be doing. Almost forgot all about them :(

@Mumrik said:

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

Honest question - do you choose to write with spell-check turned off Pat?

Yeah, mental red flag at that part. "Density"? "Destiny"? Little bit of George McFly action going on there.

Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com, a site that summarizes reviews by game critics.

If you're going to post as little news as you do, at least read it over first.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com, a site that summarizes reviews by game critics.

Guess the guys can expect a of swag in their 'press kits' then. The timed exclusivity is pretty shit as well, if true. I don't like you very much, Microsoft.

How are timed exclusives any worse than regular exclusives? It is just a big business doing big business shit.

Holy crap guys, I just figured it out. The IW/Acticision trial has all just been an elaborate ARG for Bungies new game.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com, a site that summarizes reviews by game critics.

Guess the guys can expect a of swag in their 'press kits' then. The timed exclusivity is pretty shit as well, if true. I don't like you very much, Microsoft.

You would rather that they kept Bungie, and it became a full exclusive? I don't understand your logic.

Figures Bungie going "solo" was just a lie. It was all orchestrated by MS, Bungie, and Activision. Bungie continues to make generic sci-fi shooters and the other two split the cost.

That contract sounds really rough. 4 games in 8 years, with a downloadable release in between each one... What has Bungie gotten itself in to?

I expect a lot of reviewers to give this game a high score to help Bungie out. With the bonus being known it invalidates every review for the game when it hits.

The reason I could never get into Halo is that it was a dumbed down version of a brilliant series:

Marathon

Bring it on

I think this gives us a better idea that a new "Xbox" console won't be coming till at least 2014. This game is scheduled to debut on the Xbox 360 in 2013. It could be a year where there maybe a overlap with a new console coming out but one would think Bungie would want to work and concentrate on the new hardware.

2014 seems like a more solid date for the next "Xbox". I would not be surprised if we see a Blu-Ray enabled Xbox (movies only) and a Xbox 360 lite, think similar to a Roku but no disc drive. Microsoft would then release a external Blu-Ray player for both devices. Heck, what if Microsoft just bought Netflix? Just typing whatever pops in my head.

Oh yeah, this is about those Halo guys.

@AhmadMetallic said:

This is what gaming has become? Nothing but a heroin market powered by micro transactions, hats, subscriptions, seasons passes and other fees? Fuck off Bungie.

That's right, be pissed at Bungie about nothing that was mentioned in the article.

@Getz said:

That contract sounds really rough. 4 games in 8 years, with a downloadable release in between each one... What has Bungie gotten itself in to?

I imagine their tech is solid right now for the 360 and most of the work for the franchise is on the other end, lore, story and asset generation, while the shift for the sequels to the next platform will take a lot of time to build something meaningful technically for a new system the actual franchise will have been built at this point, story and lore wise and they can shift their attention to the technical end. I think it's very possible for a studio like Bungie, they aren't as small as they used to be and they definitely have the resources needed to hire up and churn out things when they want to. They pumped ODST out within a year, and that was on a very slim whim of 'hey this cool concept, and we are bored' basically so now they are specifically getting paid to do this.

Bungie has a knack for doing really interesting technical things with their games so far, that's what I look forward to the most. I'm sure it will be interesting as well, on other aspects.

@algertman: Reviews have know for YEARS that metacritic scores are looked at to determine bonuses. Many have decried it. Any reviewer worth their salt knows that and HAS to put that out of their mind or they'd never be able to do their jobs.

@Toug said:

@algertman: Reviews have know for YEARS that metacritic scores are looked at to determine bonuses. Many have decried it. Any reviewer worth their salt knows that and HAS to put that out of their mind or they'd never be able to do their jobs.

So they explains why review score have turned to shit over the years.

@algertman said:

So they explains why review score have turned to shit over the years.

Umm... sure? If that works for you?

@Mumrik: Hell @Mumrik said:

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

Honest question - do you choose to write with spell-check turned off Pat?

Totally agree. Everyone drops a typo now and then, but you just misspelt the first reveal of Bungie's next game! Sloppy work, by any news editor's standards. Dude, you get so much stick about this from the users, I'd have thought you'd have made the decision to invest that extra fifteen minutes in a thorough proof read. Or give it to someone else to check.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

Bungie gets another $2.5 million if the first Destiny game achieves a score of 90 or better out of 100 on GameRankings.com, a site that summarizes reviews by game critics.

Guess the guys can expect a of swag in their 'press kits' then. The timed exclusivity is pretty shit as well, if true. I don't like you very much, Microsoft.

You would rather that they kept Bungie, and it became a full exclusive? I don't understand your logic.

I've waited so long to hear news about Marathon.

@Robot_Moses said:

I've waited so long to hear news about Marathon.

Oh god, me too. It's been so very very long since Infinity...

@bingbangboom said:

I think this gives us a better idea that a new "Xbox" console won't be coming till at least 2014. This game is scheduled to debut on the Xbox 360 in 2013. It could be a year where there maybe a overlap with a new console coming out but one would think Bungie would want to work and concentrate on the new hardware.

This is pretty much what i was thinking. Perhaps it's worth bearing in mind that the contract dates back to April 2010, so there's a possibility things have shifted around since then (as Klepek stated), but it basically sets up a vague "2014" release window for new consoles in my mind, which near enough aligns to the whole 10-year console lifespan philosophy touted a few years ago.

This paragraph sticks in my mind:

"Per the agreement, Destiny would be an Xbox 360 exclusive released in fall 2013, with a sequels arriving on new hardware platforms from Microsoft, Sony, and a version on PC. It specified four games, with sequels coming every other year."

Could the next-gen 'sequel' to the 360 exclusive be a launch-window game? If Bungie's next project is that big a deal to Sony et al., could we theoretically see a new console being released in 2015 rather than the year before? Hypotheticals, of course, and that does seem rather extreme, so alternatively, is it perceivable that Bungie could move their goalposts capitalize on the arrival of a new hardware platform(s)?