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.