[UPDATE -- Friday, October 5, 6:20 PM EST -- Bungie has replied to a few questions we sent them. Check our interview with Bungie about life post-Microsoft-ownership]
A week of rumors, started by a blogger Jacob Metcalf, have been proven true. Bungie Studios, creators of Microsoft’s blockbuster “Halo” franchise, are going independent.
The studio had been owned by Microsoft since 2000.
According to the official statement:
Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.
Note that Microsoft will retain all rights to “Halo,” which perhaps legitimizes this blog’s early handicapping of which other developers Microsoft might tap if it wants to continue to expand the franchise.
But Bungie is now free to make what it wants for whoever it wants. At this time, Bungie suggests that they may stick to some familiar things. Here’s Harold Ryan, studio head of Bungie, in today’s statement:
“We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios; and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”
And here’s Shane Kim, corporate vp of Microsoft Game Studios, mapping out the “Halo” and Bungie/MS future:
“Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in ‘Halo’ becoming an enduring mainstream hit … While we are supporting Bungie’s desire to return to its independent roots, we 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.”
And here’s more from a chipper-sounding Bungie co-founder Jason Jones:
“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,“
MS will hold a minority interest in Bungie, which is once more an independent.
So… anyone up for a Bungie game on the PS3 or Wii?
[Update: Fixed the spelling of Jacob's name]
October 5th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
U mean people actually bouth a PS3…..and a Wii????
October 5th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Here’s hoping they start making Mac games now, too.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
A bit of a typo on my name. But that’s a great write up.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
marathon? durandal?
okay!
October 5th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Right. Bring back the Mac games. How about a continuation of Marathon?
October 5th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
halo3 on wii would be tight!!
October 5th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Reminds me of what MS said and did when they worked with Sybase. Look what happened to them after “their parting ways” while claiming to work on the same themes and universes, but separately.
I wonder which will “kill” Master Chief off first, when the day comes.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Mac games will never come back with anything worth it. You should just buy Parallels and run windows, boot camp or run Vmware Fusion, but that is the price you pay for the illusion of Mac superiority.
At any rate, i hope bunige does well and starts a trend of cross platform games that all can enjoy and i am sure they will become an even more dominant player in the industry, but if they dont i still have a xbox 360 and will enjoy their games for years to come.
October 5th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Halo X for the Wii ?? Probably not, but still…
October 5th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Bob, Macs ARE better. Windows as an operating system is the worst of all the available options. Unix, and Linux Distro, and OSX are all far superior operating systems to Windows XP or Vista. Windows is, however, the most widely supported operating system of the group. That’s not necessarily to say it has better software, just more of it. For any non-gamer, anything you could possibly want to do in Windows you can do better, faster, and with more stability in OSX or Linux (OSX is actually based on Linux). So enjoy your games on Windows, but don’t forget to install your anti-virus software, and adware/malware prevention software, which promise to slow your already slow operating system down even more.
Oh, which operating system does Microsoft use for its servers? That’s right, they use Linux.
October 5th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Ha….Ha….., sometimes its good to go indy.
October 5th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
No Brian, all those people waiting in line for three days and also those people selling ps3’s on ebay for $3,000.00 . . . was just a dream. . .
October 5th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
This is just a ploy to add more heat to the game, with the thought of them splitting more folks might jump and buy and Xbox to play this game. Reality is they may pick up a project or two, but Halo will stay Microsoft to make it to the PC in a year or two.
What I don’t understand is Micorsoft has this huge push called “games for Windows” and has IP over what sales indicate is the hottest game ever, but they don’t port it to Windows on release. Did I miss something here? What is worth more, selling an X-box or geting masses to upgrade to Vista and DX 10 cards to play this game? Missed the bus again you smart ones from Microsoft marketing team!
Oh Mac user, stop trolling on gammer fourms, and go edit some pictures. By the way, we have PhotoShop too and it runs faster via SLI… but your still learning and don’t even know what 680I chipset is do you? Enjoy your time on your Mac trolling our forums hating on us becuase we have what you want.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I hope Microsoft doesnt turn this great game into some noobie thing, I dont know but sure they are thinking how to sell more to ALL the people marquets from childs to olds… keep it simple as it is
October 5th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Sorry Bill, but Mac’s are the greatest thing since sliced bread as most Mac users seem to think. I will concede that OSX and Linux based OS’ are more stable, but in return they are limited to what they can use. Simply put, it’s either their way or the highway. Microsoft does have that mind set too, I will not dispute that. But at the very least they will meet other companies half way in working with their OS’. Which is the reason why they are as vulnerable as they are. They have to open themselves more then OSX or Linux in order to work with the majority of software out there that users want to use. Also anything that can be done on a Mac, can be done on a PC. It’s just easier on a Mac, that’s all. But I wouldn’t go boasting that Mac’s are better for non gaming purposes. You won’t see law firms, or accounting firms clamour for Macs, cause frankly the tools they need aren’t there. That is one of the reasons why Windows is so big. They cater to the business market and know what they want. Apple…not so much. I’m not going to argue that Windows is the great of the OS’, that would ignorant of me. Fact of the matter is, none of these OS’ are better then the other, they have their good points and their bad points. Albiet, some more then others.
As for that little quip about Window’s and virus’….you might wanna know more about the product you’re boasting about before you ridicule another
i.e. this article http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm
October 5th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Bill, on a daily basis I use all three operating systems you mentioned. For classes I use a MacBook, in my labs we use Linux (Fedora), and at home I have a dual-boot of XP and Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. There is *nothing* I do on XP that the Mac or the two Linux distributions do better, faster, or with more stability. In fact, I would say Ubuntu crashes on me a lot more frequently than XP, and about a third of our lab computers have issues with Fedora. While it’s true I haven’t experienced any problems with the MacBook, it doesn’t do anything better either.
It’s true that possibly my needs, outside of gaming, are fairly modest and I have a powerful machine which maybe the reason for my positive windows experience. All I do is read emails, use IM programs, run Firefox, write software, listen to music, rip DVDs, run a few utility programs (Google Earth), and of course play games. Perhaps if I actually ran other applications I’d see what you mean by “faster, better, and with more stability”, however that’s a far cry from “possibly anything you could want to do”. Furthermore I can buy that linux is better suited towards antiquated hardware that XP and Vista don’t support anymore or would run exceptionally poorly on–if that was your argument I’d agree with you.
The bottom line is that, for me at least, Windows does everything I could possibly want to do just fine *and* I can play a wide selection of games on it. No other operating system can make that claim.
October 5th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
woops, noticed an error on the first line, should read “Mac’s are not the greatest thing since sliced bread”.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
It’s funny how this has degraded into a PC vs. Mac debate but here is my take on it. I’ve supported three of the platforms you guys have mentioned and I can say from experience that the Mac is NOT superior or more stable than any other platform. Anyone who knows much about computers can tell you that it’s usually not the OS itself that has/causes problems, its the drivers and/or software written for that OS that causes the issues. I’ve taken support requests from a slew of Mac users who have had issues varying from installing peripherals to OS related errors. As for viruses/malware, Rishi hit the nail on the head. There are simply FAR LESS Macs out there to be affected by a virus. Ask yourself a simple question…if you were working to code your latest viral masterpiece, why on earth would you write it for a Mac? How many computers are you gonna infect? Now if you do it for windows, how many computers are you gonna infect?
October 6th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
dooooode the halo series is the gayest ever the madden series is way better
October 7th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Alright mostly some of my friends have Halo 3 and they could’nt stop talking about it. They make me want to get but, I only have a WII. Well I give props to Bungie for making one memorable series.