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Official - Bungie Departing Microsoft
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:33 AM
from the holy-cats dept.
from the holy-cats dept.
jasoncart writes "Microsoft today confirmed the news that has been speculated for some days, that Halo developer Bungie is 'on the path' to becoming an independent company. Microsoft describes this as an 'evolution' of their relationship, but no concrete reason is given for this move. 'Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said the company was "supporting Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots". However, he added, Microsoft "will continue to invest in our Halo entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the Halo universe". "We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through Halo-related titles and new IP created by Bungie," he added.'" MTV wonders out loud ... if Bungie doesn't make Halo 4 who will? The official press release from Bungie gives you the same information from the other side, as does an interview with Frankie at GameDailyBiz. Update: 10/05 21:25 GMT by Z : In the wake of the announcement Kotaku has a quickie email interview discussing the future of the company.
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I know... (Score:4, Insightful)
In all honesty, both sides would be foolish to give up the current relationship they have with that franchise, even if Bungie becomes 100% independent.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And MS...well we know how much Halo has helped them. So they don;t want to ruin it either.
Yea, like releasing more PC products. (Score:3, Interesting)
There is no excuse for that other than to squeaze as much as they can in the 360 market. I just wonder if they will be given the same freedom as an "independent"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft already has a legal monopoly in the computing industry...they are only in their second generation in the gaming industry. They need something to help cement themselves into place...the halo series is one of their primary tools for doing so. While for CONSUMERS it would make more sense and would be better to rel
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That is very true - Halo was used to drive Xbox sales. It's the whole "killer app" phenomenon. The point that needs to be emphasized, though, is not that consumers were losing out, but that Bungie was losing out. They were losing money they would have made if they were not forced to make Halo an almost-exclusive title, and I betcha they lost even more money on that whole "Direct X 10 Only Because We Need to Sell Vista" debacle.
If I was an employee at Bungie, I'd be thinking something along the lines of, "
Re:I know... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just as Microsoft purchased SoftImage only to get them to product a Windows OS version and tried to terminate the UNIX version because the goal was to build support for the WindowsNT OS. In the SoftImage deal, Microsoft ran into major fights with employees over this Windows-only push from Microsoft. Microsoft eventually spit SoftImage back out and they continue to support both *nix and Windows platforms. This Bungie split sounds quite like the SoftImage deal and especially so after hearing how well Halo 3 for Xbox360 sold. You'd think Microsoft would REALLY want to keep control of that kind of money maker and not let the split off to support the other guys.
And who knows, maybe there was quite an uproar from other game vendors because of the ownership of competing game developers such as Bungie? Would really like to know how/why this happened.
LoB
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
MS paid Nintendo ~300 million for Nintendo's 49% share of Rare. Presumably they paid Rare a similar amount for the rest of the company.
As for comparing the values of the company, that's a tough call. Rare owned the rights to Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Killer Instinct, Conker, and some assorted other properties, some recent, some not. The only thing Bungie has done in this decade is Halo, which MS is retaining the rights to. They've got
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I know (Score:5, Funny)
Shut It.. (Score:3, Funny)
Nobody should be surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever since Bungie was purchased by Microsoft, they've done nothing but produce Halo for the XBox. No PC ports, no different games, they're barely even allowed to produce story-driven single player content. Go back and look at Bungie's pre-Xbox games: the Marathon series (which was intended to tie in to Halo), the Myth series, even Pathways into Darkness was more original than Halo 3.
I was angry with Bungie when, just a few months before Halo was to be released as a Mac exclusive, Microsoft bought them out and put them to work. But eventually I began to feel sorry for them. Bungie has had its creativity stifled for quite some time now and they've finally realized it.
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Re:Nobody should be surprised (Score:4, Informative)
Besides that, do a web search for an "Evolution of Halo" video. It's a quicktime video made a few years ago, about 30 minutes long or so (maybe an hour), that features Bungie developers showing footage of Halo at its various stages of development, since it was first announced at Mac World, then became a PC/Mac title, and right up until the Xbox version. The video includes commentary by three Bungie devs and at one point they talk of the fact that had it not been for Microsoft, Halo would never have been completed and released, period. Bungie was on the ropes as a company before MS bought them.
Parent
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while it is true that they needed an infusion of cash, its not a stretch to imagine a world where that cash came from another source. Someplace like Apple for instance (to make it mac exclusive, or at least mac first) or perhaps another gaming company.
Clearly this was a good move for MS, but I remember what was being promised with Halo back in the beginning and what was delivered was very different. At least some of those changes were due to the fact that it was an X-box release instead of a Mac/PC game.
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From the looks of things, it seems that Microsof
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Re:Nobody should be surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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God, I remember running my ghols around harassing the crap out of people. Grabbing heads from fallen bad guys and chucking it at their soldiers and taunting them, then taking off as their whole line followed me across the map before they noticed, while my buddy came round with the main troops from the front.
Or desert between your ears. Great map! Two wights on either side of the
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Halo was a big console pusher for the XBox. In fact, 5 to 10 years from now, it will probably be the only game most people remember playing on the original XBox.
But you're right, it wouldn't have sold that many Macs. One of the reasons it did so well, IMHO, is because it provided a great FPS experience to people without requiring a $1200+ gaming rig. By the time Halo2 came out, you could buy the system and the game for less than the price of a high-end video card.
Bring back Marathon! (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_Trilogy [wikipedia.org]
Can we say it? (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently... (Score:5, Funny)
Did any other British readers read this as... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe we should harness their colletive "HUH" energies and use it to put a toupee over the hole in the ozone layer...
Clearly what will happen (Score:5, Funny)
So Bungie becomes like Polyphony (Score:4, Interesting)
The article also says Microsoft will "will retain an equity interest" in Bungie.
This tells me that Bungie simply goes from Microsoft 1st party to Microsoft 2nd party, like Sony's relationship with Polyphony (makers of GT).
Yay! (Score:3, Interesting)
Myth! Multiple platforms... something NEW (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to see new Mac games from Bungie again. I liked playing all their games, even FPS. Doom and quake never interested me. Marathon... there was just something about Marathon. The best companies invest in the mythos and storyline of their game. Bungie does that so well. When Bungie was purchased by Microsoft and halo taken to xbox, I lost all interest.
And hell, it's about time they just came up with something completely new.
Looks like they want to return to the Mac (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe another Marathon sequal? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_Trilogy [wikipedia.org]
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
And If I was a game developer working on the same title for years on end - I'd probably want a change too.
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Actually, image more than merchandising (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Funny)
The problem is that selling crappy merchandise is so much more lucrative than the billion dollar expanding software market.
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is how you profit: Making ten versions of two products, with minor differences in between versions, but charging $100 more to advance to the next level.
XP Home Edition
XP Professional
XP Tablet PC Edition
XP Media Center Edition
XP Professional x64 Edition
Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Business
Vista Enterprise
Vista Ultimate
While it's not exactly merchandising, it's pretty damn close.
Parent
I like them. (Score:3, Insightful)
More like one set in the same universe. It's my understanding that basically every shooter they've ever put out, including the Marathon games, is set in the same universe. Maybe even the shooter/rpg before that... what was it called?
But imagine being a Marathon fan leading up to the launch of the original Halo. Cortana actually sent out emails to various fan sites ahead of time, so people were analyzing all the ways in wh
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Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Just because they own the IP and made the first few games, does not mean that they have to make all the games in perpituity.
For example, Id Software, despite providing the engine and making Quake 1-3, did not develop Quake 4 -- it developed by Raven Software.
Parent
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Actually, Microsoft is keeping the IP, not Bungie:
"Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agree
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My understanding is that Microsoft has "first refusal" on the publishing rights for anything Bungie makes in the future. But Bungie will be able to work on whatever they want. Which means they could decide to make their next game for the W
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Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Other than the well implemented vehicles point(Tribes 2? not sure if it came out before or after Halo), many of the other ones seem to be minor points of game mechanics. Many of the points listed were implemented in other (very popular) games.
Take counterstrike for example. There were simple throw grenade button mods which I'm sure most people used. It was a game that delivered a wonderful online experience. Unrea
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Linky: http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/05/174217 [macslash.org]
For those who don't want to read AFA here is the short version: More copies of Halo for Mac have been pirated than sold. Mostly out of spite from mac fan boys for the fact that originally Halo was to be a Mac first title (some say Mac-only, but...) before Microsoft bought Bungie and had it developed as the "killer app". I generally assumed that enough of geekdom around here kn