It's official: Bungie branches off from Microsoft (Joystiq.com)

[8th lutz]

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/05/its-offi...from-microsoft/

 

Bungie has just announced that they've "reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement" that Bungie will "branch off" from Microsoft Game Studios 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.

 

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.

[FastRobPlus]

They were never integrated into MGS.

[Atari5200]

i don't think anything will change. With Microsoft still having a financial stake in the company, I doubt they're going to let them do Halo 4 for the PS3. I honestly do not see much changing with this. I know the article on Gamespot calls it an "evolve" situation. I guess only time will tell. This will force Bungie to make more games and good games if it's going to rely on it's software sales to maintain business instead of funding from Microsoft.

[NE146]

yeah, I was going to say.. and this affects us.. how?

[Artlover]

i don't think anything will change. With Microsoft still having a financial stake in the company, I doubt they're going to let them do Halo 4 for the PS3.

"minority equity interest" which means equity of the minority shareholders in a company's subsidiaries.

 

Microsoft has no controll over operations or policy of Bungie anymore. All they have is partial minority ownership that entitles them to dividends and being mentioned on Bungie's balance sheet. There is nothing Microsoft could do to stop Bungie from releasing Halo 4 for the PS3. At best they could pull a Sony, and demand limited exclusivity for a game released on their system first. But thats pretty much it.

 

Maybe we'll see HaloDS yet.

[FastRobPlus]

Microsoft has no controll over operations or policy of Bungie anymore. All they have is partial minority ownership that entitles them to dividends and being mentioned on Bungie's balance sheet. There is nothing Microsoft could do to stop Bungie from releasing Halo 4 for the PS3. At best they could pull a Sony, and demand limited exclusivity for a game released on their system first. But thats pretty much it.

 

Maybe we'll see HaloDS yet.

 

Microsoft owns Halo, not Bungie. I'm pretty sure that was in the press release.

 

*edit*

Yep - here it is:

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.

 

So - MD has right of first refusal for ALL Bungie titles, and Bungie stays an Xbox 360 dev house.

But Bungie can get permission or pay MS for the right to port Halo if they wanted to, and could potentially release a game on multiple platforms with MS buyoff. Rare does this today with the Nintendo DS. I think Viva Pinata comes out for the DS in the next few weeks, right?

Edited October 5, 2007 by FastRobPlus

[Albert]

It would be nice to see Bungie start developing for the Mac again, since that's where they got their start.

 

..Al

[Artlover]

Microsoft owns Halo, not Bungie.

 

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.

Ok, THAT is different then. Obviously MS does have controll over Halo.

 

I'm suprized Bungie gave up ownership.

 

Also seems MS HAS pulled a Sony with their "first crack" reserve.

 

What was the point then? I suspect there maybe some financial/tax/antitrust issues hidden in there somewhere.

[esquire]

yeah, I was going to say.. and this affects us.. how?

 

Well for one it will be nice for them to go back to developing games for the PC and Mac, like how they originally started. I for one would love to see them resurrect the "Myth" franchise, whether it be on the PC, Mac or even the 360. Additionally, since they no longer own the Halo rights, they could go back to the "Marathon" franchise. I used to love Bungie back in the day before Halo.

[Video]

Correct me if I'm wrong...but Bungie was never Microsofts, and therefor, have no issues with branching. (I seem to recall haveing quiet a few Bungie titles for PS2, and Even a couple for the GBA)

 

The only X-box exclusive (though being on PC kinda makes it not 'exclusive') is Halo. And I think that's actually owned by Microsoft...though bungie did develope it or program or whatever they did to it... But most, if not all their other titles are multiplat from the begining, or certainly not the long window of exclusivity that Halo has.

Edited October 6, 2007 by Video

[Hyper_Eye]

Microsoft purchased Bungie before the first Halo release. Halo was originally a game in development for Mac's. Microsoft bought Bungie and diverted their attention to the XBox. It was a part of Microsoft Game Studios.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios

[NintendoDieScreaming]

It would be nice to see Bungie start developing for the Mac again, since that's where they got their start.

 

..Al

 

 

That would be pretty :thumbsup: