Bungie

History

Bungie was founded in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, and Jason Jones as a development house for the Macintosh. Their first game, Gnop!, was a freeware Pong clone for the Mac, although you could pay $15.00 for the source code. Bungie went on to release Operation Desert Storm, and Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. These were followed by the Marathon series ( First-Person space shooters) and the Myth series (Real-Time Fantasy Tactics).

The team started working on their next project, Halo: Combat Evolved, which was originally a Sci-fi Real Time Strategy game. During its development, it was changed to a third-person shooter and was scheduled to be released for the

Mac and PC. Bungie’s plans had changed though as they were acquired by Microsoft in 2000, and Halo would become an exclusive game for their first entry to the console market, the Xbox. The game changed once again to a first-person shooter, and was a launch title for the Xbox. The game broke many sales records, and was critically acclaimed as one of the best games of all time. The game was (much) later ported to the PC and Mac as Halo: Custom Edition. Following Halo: Combat Evolved's success, Bungie went to work on Halo 2, concentrating on multiplayer and Xbox Live functionality. The game was released in November of 2004, breaking many sales records that the original had held. It was praised for its multiplayer, and was the most played Xbox Live game for many years, remaining popular even after the release of the new Xbox 360 console, right up until the service dropped compatibility with original Xbox games on April 15th, 2010. There were criticisms about the short single player campaign and its notorious cliffhanger ending, causing mixed opinions about whether it was better than the original or not.

Bungie’s next title was the highly anticipated Halo 3 , the first in the series to be released on the new Xbox 360. Once again, Bungie received critical acclaim and record-breaking sales, making Halo 3 the best-selling game of 2007, with 8.1 million units sold. The game was followed up in 2009 with Halo 3: ODST, which was set during the timeline of Halo 2 and used the Halo 3 engine. Bungie has since released Halo: Reach, a prequel set before Halo: Combat Evolved, originally announced at E3 2009, which covers the destruction of the planet Reach. The multiplayer beta was the game went live on May 3rd, 2010 and was accessible through an option on the Halo 3: ODST campaign disc. The game proper was released on September 14, 2010. Reach was Bungie's final and entry in the Halo, and control of the Halo franchise has been passed to Microsoft-created 343 Industries.

Bungie has recently signed a 10-year exclusive partnership with Activision. They have also planned to release their "next big action game universe" under Activision. Bungie still remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property.

Following the earthquake in Japan, Bungie (in association with Amazon) began selling wristbands ($5.00) to help aid the Japanese relief effort. All money for the wristbands goes directly to the Red Cross.

On June 30th, 2011, during their extended 20th anniversary celebrations, Bungie announced details on their newest effort, Bungie Aerospace. The program, set to launch later in the summer, is a attempt to break into the mobile gaming market by teaming up with a selection of independent developers and releasing games on both the iOS and Android platforms. Their first game, Crimson, is being developed by Harebrained Schemes, a company headed by the man behind the famous Halo 2 ARG, "I Love Bees".

In November 2012, details were leaked to IGN about Bungie's next project, Destiny. Bungie officially unveiled the game on February 17, 2013 by releasing a video documentary showcasing concept art and other high concept designs. The game will be an online only experience that allows players to group up and take on various missions similar to an MMO.

On January 31, 2022, it was announced that Bungie had been purchased by Sony Interactive Entertainment for $3.6 billion.

Games