Bungie is a development studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. They are the creators of the Marathon, Myth, Halo, and Destiny series of games.
Wow. I'm shocked, pissed off, and worried all at the same time. I really hope Bungie knows what they're doing because Activision's recent behavior has been terrible, to say the least.
You'd have to assume that if Activision snapped them up, that EA was going after them as well. I wonder what tipped the scales for Activision in the bidding war?
Well, isn't Activision announcing a new CoD tomorrow? Seems like interesting timing to announce Bungie is working with Activision the day before the reveal of the new CoD.
Either I'm selectively reading, or it only says that Activision will be involved in a single title. It also (though potential bullshitting) says that the partnership is not focused on a creative alliance, but more as a distribution/marketing alliance.
" I'm guessing this is more like Blizzard than IW. "
It's not like either of them. Activision DOES NOT OWN Bungie. "
Then even better. Why is everyone acting like bungie is destroyed now? "
Because they're still working with Activision. Which means the first selling IP Bungie makes will be the only one they make for the next 10 years. Again. Which is the reason why they left Microsoft in the first place.
Considering Activision managed to rocket MW2 to such a high level of financial success I imagine they can do great things for Bungie and their future projects. Lets be fair they have a strong pedigree of talent with the Halo games being proof of their ability to make successful games. Perhaps this will make Infinity Ward employees realise they may be better off staying with Activision if a big developer like Bungie is willing to sing up with them in the midst of all this drama and legal action.
A surprise, but an oddly welcome one. Perhaps we'll see a Bungie creation on the PS3 sometime in the future!
At least now we know who will likely be making the next COD game.
" Why do Bungie need to sign a ten year deal with anyone? They are big enough to survive on publishing deals on a game by game basis. "
I can only assume this is a deal to handle the external elements of a game release. Bungie are too smart and have too strong a hand to relinquish too much control of their product. I can only assume this partnership is probably more marketing and distribution related.
I really can't see them penning a deal with anyone that would take control of the development back out of their hands.
" I'm guessing this is more like Blizzard than IW. "
It's not like either of them. Activision DOES NOT OWN Bungie. "
Then even better. Why is everyone acting like bungie is destroyed now? "
Because they're still working with Activision. Which means the first selling IP Bungie makes will be the only one they make for the next 10 years. Again. Which is the reason why they left Microsoft in the first place. "
But weren't they owned by Microsoft as a 2nd party(I think) during that time? This just seems like a publishing deal.
It's just a publishing deal. It's not a takeover or anything like that. It just means that for any games Bungie develop in the next 10 years Activision get to make the disks, print the manuals and ship them to stores (or send them straight to you via the magic of the internet). It's not a big deal. The only difference any of us will notice is an Activision logo next to Bungie's on the box.
It's a shame they had to jump into bed with Activision.
However, I don't think this has to be seen as bad news. I'm excited about the prospect of big developers owning their own IP and keeping creative control. I've been arguing for a while that gaming desperately needed a 'New Hollywood' style shake up, and this, combined with Respawn, is a pretty great start. For the first time in a long time, we are going to see some of the top talent in the industry making exactly what they want to be making, which has to be better than the assembly line approach of the last 5-10 years.
This looks a lot like Activision might be trying to get its own Partner program going after seeing how successful it was with EA over the past few years.
Hell of a way to start. This must mean MS' first look contract with Bungie doesn't exist anymore.
" Why do Bungie need to sign a ten year deal with anyone? They are big enough to survive on publishing deals on a game by game basis. "
I can only assume this is a deal to handle the external elements of a game release. Bungie are too smart and have too strong a hand to relinquish too much control of their product. I can only assume this partnership is probably more marketing and distribution related. I really can't see them penning a deal with anyone that would take control of the development back out of their hands. We'll see. "
Yeah I agree with that point. I just don't know why they would like to see themselves locked into a publishing deal for ten years. Maybe there is some get out clause. I'm sure contracts where drafted with the largest amount of attention possible. Especially when the other company in the deal is Activision.
Oh well sounds like whatever Bungie are doing next it will have a huge driving force behind it.
Dude, what? Does this mean Activision will be publishing Reach? Hopefully Activision will have no influence on Bungie, but if what MattyFTM said is true, I suspect Bungie will be fine.
I'm pretty sure Microsoft still owns all the IP for Halo, so there's not much of a chance of seeing anything Halo-related published by Activision. But certainly other IPs...
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment