Activision Lawsuit Has Details on Bungie’s Next Game

Marathon reboot? Pants: creamed.

But man, I really hope they axed the Microsoft exclusivity. Let's let everyone have a little bit of Bungie.

Any Bungie fan would know that they've been on a campaign of world domination for a long time now and this game might finally get them there.

An FPSMMO seems like a mighty hard game to make though. I'm very intrigued to see what they've designed both universe and gameplay wise. Let's hope they crank out something awesome and that people actually buy into it because by the looks of that contract if they don't Activision is gonna leave them out in the cold.

Copied from you-know-where, for the good of everyone..."you-know-here"? 
 
-Massively multiplayer style, sci-fantasy action shooter series codenamed Destiny with expansion packs codenamed Comet.
-Four games releasing in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019.
-Four expansion packs releasing in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020.
-The main games will be retail.
-There will be other DLC, subscriptions, microtransactions, and value added services.
-The first game will be an Xbox 360 and "Xbox 720" timed exclusive.
-Activision and Bungie are considering a PS3 version of the first game in 2014.
-The second game is targeted for 360, 720, PS4, and Windows PC, though the contract notes that some of those SKUs may be dropped if they decide they are not worthwhile or not technically feasible.
-Activision can terminate the contract without penalty if Destiny doesn't sell at least 5 million units in the first six months, or for any reason they please after the second expansion pack releases.
-Bungie is also working on a Marathon game, but currently no more than 5% of their staff (nor more than 5% of their key staff) can work on it, and the amount of employees that can work on it goes up slowly as they hit cumulative profit goals. There are also limits on when Bungie can release Marathon. For specifics on this see the contract images at the bottom since it's pretty lengthy.
-The game is targeting a rating of Teen/PEGI 16, but Bungie is not contractually held to hit this mark.
-The contract implies the game has in-game game masters, like those people who work for Blizzard and handle user requests in World of Warcraft while playing some kind of digital representation in the MMO world (or at least being accessible through in game chat).
-Bungie will receive a $2.5 million bonus if Destiny achieves a GameRankings.com rating of 90 or higher on Xbox 360 as measured 30 days after release.
-Bungie will also get a 20% royalty of the first $100 million in cumulative operating income, 24% on the income between $101-$400 million, and 35% on the income $401 million or above. These royalties are subject to a penalty of 2%, 2.4%, and 3.5% respectively if the games are delayed for reasons caused by Bungie within reason (i.e. if an earthquake destroys their studio they're not at fault, but if they just don't get the game done on time they are). These last two bullet points I'm leaving in the contract itself to cut down on OP length. 
 
Confirmation from Bungie 
http://www.bungie.net/News/Blog.aspx?mode=news#cid32112

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: It doesn't necessarily mean that Microsoft is paying them. It may be stipulated in the agreement that let Bungie become its own entity after being owned by Microsoft. After all, Microsoft still owns a minority stake in Bungie.

A similar hypothetical situation would be Sony letting Naughty Dog split off from them to form their own LLC. Part of that agreement could potentially be exclusive rights to the first game in any new franchise while still owning rights to games developed while under the banner of Sony. Of course, this is very unlikely to happen, as companies prefer to keep control over popular exclusive franchises and the companies that made them.

Why Microsoft ever let Bungie go is a mystery. However, that decision allowed Bungie to start creating new IPs, some of which will come to your preferred platform. The other option, in this case, may very well have been not having those games at all.

Who the Fuck cares about spelling errors god Damn.

Anyways, this all disgusts me. Planned sequels and exclusivity...just god Damn.

We get it, some of you are still butthurt that Patrick joined the site a fucking year ago. Stop jumping all over him for every tiny spelling mistake. Jesus, the bitter attitude on this site is pathetic.

"Project Desiny"

It would kind of rule if MS was (insanely) actually calling the next console the 720, and Patrick is the one who leaked it early.

yearly updates looks bad for Bungie (expansions every other year, main game on the main years)

Bungie is still planning on releasing games, CONFIRMED. Cool though.

@KaneRobot: In what way? It seems like that should be the name...

Frog blast the vent core!

Patrick is to good for spellcheck.

Destiny: A Master Chief Tale

2013 is far enough ahead not to worry about, let alone some of that later stuff. I personally don't much like leaks, but they're pretty hard to avoid.

As for the next Xbox 360, I think I've had some kind of epiphany; any name will work. It'll sound stupid when announced but everyone will just get used to it.

Wait. They're planning on essentially releasing a bi-yearly FPS MMO with expansions every off year? With subscriptions, DLC, microtransactions, and all the other bullshit that come from the ass end of the industry of which ActiVi$ion is very familiar with? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Why would anyone even want this? This is the typical ActiVision bullshit of shoveling product after product with minimal changes to maximize profit margins. It's great business but horrible etiquette. They honestly have to think people are fucking retarded at this point now right? I mean they've gotten away with it for so many years, might as well continue the trend.

• Activision can terminate the contract without penalty if Destiny doesn't sell at least 5 million units in the first six months, or for any reason they please after the second expansion pack releases.

That little bullet-point should worry people. Not for Bungie but to see how ActiVi$ion has their priorities. I guess Fuckface Kotick really is taking all the fun out of making games.

@prikk said:

Patrick is to good for spellcheck.

'Too good'.

The Spartan is the center is all like "Huh?" with tilting his head and all.

Please have someone proofread these or use a spellchecker..

All these documents dripping out of this is great.

@Lurkero: my guess is that promising those possibilities is what got activision come on board

Greedy little shits.

@AiurFlux said:

Wait. They're planning on essentially releasing a bi-yearly FPS MMO with expansions every off year? With subscriptions, DLC, microtransactions, and all the other bullshit that come from the ass end of the industry of which ActiVi$ion is very familiar with? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Why would anyone even want this? This is the typical ActiVision bullshit of shoveling product after product with minimal changes to maximize profit margins. It's great business but horrible etiquette. They honestly have to think people are fucking retarded at this point now right? I mean they've gotten away with it for so many years, might as well continue the trend.

• Activision can terminate the contract without penalty if Destiny doesn't sell at least 5 million units in the first six months, or for any reason they please after the second expansion pack releases.

That little bullet-point should worry people. Not for Bungie but to see how ActiVi$ion has their priorities. I guess Fuckface Kotick really is taking all the fun out of making games.

As others have mentioned, it's way too early for anyone to judge since we don't even know what the hell the game is at this point, aside from the name and a few vague details.

Also, I still don't get all the hate over DLC or microtransactions. Unless they are mandatory purchases (which would basically negate their entire purpose), who cares? The games business is changing, especially in the arena of mulitplayer-focused games.

You know what's fucking stupid? Console exclusivity to one platform for the first game in a franchise KNOWING THE REST WILL BE MULTIPLATFORM.

That said, I like Bungie, and I look forward to new information on what this actually will be.

Given that Marathon started out as an FPS and Bungle themselves made it, I should hope that it shouldn't be too difficult for Bungie to not fuck up the reboot.

Seems silly to not release on PS3 since they have been hiring PS3 engineers for the past few years. A Marathon reboot assuming that it is a full disc based game, is to me personally, a terrible cash grab. Halo and Marathon are really similar and rebooting Marathon seems like they are still trying to cash in on Halo.

Breaking news, Bungie is making a video game.

The interesting thing to me is that already in April of 2010 it was expected that the x360 would be a viable platform in fall of 2013. This gives me the impression that this "extended" life span of the current consoles has been in the works for a long time and isn't necessarily the result of strong sales through 2010 and 2011.

@RVonE said:

The interesting thing to me is that already in April of 2010 it was expected that the x360 would be a viable platform in fall of 2013. This gives me the impression that this "extended" life span of the current consoles has been in the works for a long time and isn't necessarily the result of strong sales through 2010 and 2011.

I was just listening to some old Bombcasts from 2008 and they were talking about the 'ten year cycle' then. So I think its always been in Microsoft/Sony's minds that this generation would last until 2013.

@leebmx: I forgot about that. That's interesting.

@Mumrik said:

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

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

is that really an honest question?

Good ol' Project Desiny.

Curious to see what this game is. Also only having 5% of the staff on a new marathon sounds like a typical Actvision directive

Looks like Activision has Bungie by the balls. Enjoy your new masters, fellas!

@algertman said:

@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.

Turned? Are we somehow pretending the days where EGM reviewed games they didn't play and wrote stunning, in-depth reviews like "Just another karate game," or internet reviews read like they were written and copy-edited by a fourth grader didn't exist? If you think reviews have gotten "worse," you're probably never paid attention to any games writing ever.

@klinkcow said:

@Mumrik said:

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

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

is that really an honest question?

You're right. The answer is pretty clear.

@Aaron_G said:

Very weird the first would be an Xbox exclusive.

Not really considering their parting agreements.

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

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

I clicked on this story with excitement at the thought of finding out more about Halo 4.

Then I remembered.


Now I'm sad...

Man is it really an MMO? MMOs are bad :(

A new Marathon, that is sooo cool.

Very weird the first would be an Xbox exclusive.

@cgeare said:

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

Marathon

Bring it on

As someone who likes all of the Halo games thus far (even Wars, a little bit) and has played all three Marathon games and beaten the second one?

Yeah, I agree with you up to a point.

@leebmx said:

@RVonE said:

The interesting thing to me is that already in April of 2010 it was expected that the x360 would be a viable platform in fall of 2013. This gives me the impression that this "extended" life span of the current consoles has been in the works for a long time and isn't necessarily the result of strong sales through 2010 and 2011.

I was just listening to some old Bombcasts from 2008 and they were talking about the 'ten year cycle' then. So I think its always been in Microsoft/Sony's minds that this generation would last until 2013.

This is absolutely true and has been a thing since Sony realized how well received the PS2 was. That system ended up literally being produced on a mass scale for nearly ten years.

That said, I think all three major console producers have extra justification to hold out on the next systems thanks to a less-than-ideal economy from 2008 until the present (US/Europe/Japan).

Codename Destiny, i.e...

Actual title: Smhalo

Starring: Smaster Chief

Slogan...Finish the smite.

Well done Bungie, well done.

@klinkcow said:

@Mumrik said:

“codename Desiny.”

That can't be right...

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

is that really an honest question?

I actually meant it. I'm curious because there is no way "desiny" wouldn't have had a fat red line under it. I've also seen people do it in the past.

Some other website said it'd be on PS3 too, just a year later so Bungie could figure it out better. Think that was IGN actually haha

@drewmaw said:

Codename Destiny, i.e...

Actual title: Smhalo

Starring: Smaster Chief

Slogan...Finish the smite.

Well done Bungie, well done.

And you're reading that from the codename "Destiny?" So, are you psychic, or are you just operating under the world's most invented logic?