Bungie has just announced that they've "reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement" that they'll "branch off" from the Microsoft Game Studios mothership and become Bungie, LLC, an independent company, starting ... today (well, technically October 1, but effective immediately)! Worried about Halo going to another, less competent developer? No need, the studio will retain a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for Halo titles. Other titles? All they're saying is that they "will continue to develop with [their] primary focus on Microsoft's platforms." With Microsoft holding a minority equity interest in the company, that's not surprising.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also retaining ownership of the Halo property (MGS chief Shane Kim calls it "our Halo entertainment property") as well as reserving first crack at publishing any Bungie-developed IP. We're left wondering if Marathon counts as a Halo property or a Bungie property ...
What are the immediate repercussions of this division? According to Bungie, "Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won't see much, if any difference, for a while ...." We hope it means that somehow they'll be able to bring the same level of skill to a project besides Halo.
Read - Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company (Bungie press release)
Read - Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship (MS press release)
[Update: GameDaily spoke with Bungie's Frank O'Connor about the "evolution" which, he says, has been in the planning stages for "about a year." He confirms they're not through with Halo yet; they're still working on the Peter Jackson project and DLC for Halo 3. As for Marathon, despite its close ties to the Halo universe, Bungie retains the rights to that property, while MS owns Halo and Take-Two owns Myth and Oni.]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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i guess they really did buy back their stock
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I figured they had become a first-party developer to stay
Oh well, this just means Myth and/or Marathon are coming back (plus some other unprecedented goodies)
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Either way, doesn't seem like too much will change with regards to an Xbob (and probably the PC) being the only places you can get Bungie games, which is probably what was most important to Microsoft...
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Of course, i could be wrong
Minority equity interest could be akin to Nintendo and Rare back in the day, or like Sony and Square...who knows. Either way, it seems like Bungie coughed up cash, walked a little ways away, but will only be making games for the 360, which is what Microsoft (and Xbox fans) really cared about. I've got all current-gen systems so it doesn't matter, but it's good news for the kids who picked up a 360 just because of Halo 3.
2nd party it is.
That relationship was, however, less strict than Nintendo and Rare, in which Nintendo had 49% stake in Rare (if I remember correctly).
Either way, I see this as a move from 1st to 2nd party - means more freedom and monies for Bungie and Microsoft doesn't see a mass exodus from the studio they bought. Works well, and probably was the most Bungie could afford to buy back.
EXACTLY.
This is very similar to Nintendo's arrangement with Rare before they had their falling out.
Microsoft gets to own say, 49.99% of Bungie, may be able to get the lion's share of their net income because they're probably the general partner, doesn't have to detail anything that goes on inside of Bungie in their financial statements (not required to consolidate, minority interest, so they'll just report it as a single line item called "investment in Bungie, LLC"), and Bungie really is in charge of what they do, while Microsoft is protected from someone else buying Bungie out without their knowledge and consent.
This is really weird, but the break up is no where near as complete as people think, even though the autonomy is quite real.
This is bigger than Rare leaving Nintendo because, frankly Rare sucked at the time anyways.
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"Listen to me baby, there's going to be beautiful covenant babies on Halo. You're so fucking money and you don't even know it."
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which is for porn.
*has A.D.D.*
Haha..what a great song that is. 'Grab your stick and double click..for porn, porn, porn!'
Teh internet is for porn!
I have to say other than th eoriginal the guildwars version is one of the best
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Well if you think about it is a possibility that they have just become a subsidiary company that Microsoft owns. So all the hot loot's they are going to be making are just going to be kicked back to papa 'Soft.
But it is going to be sweet to see how broad their spectrum is outside of the Chief.
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And no I do not care if Halo makes it's way to the PS3. Besides, I believe Microsoft still owns the game's rights.
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