Bungie's exclusive 10-year publishing deal with Activision represents a chance for the developer to make some big bank if they can create another Halo-caliber franchise. Sony hopes their next project will be "'Halo' on steroids," and PlayStation 3-owning fans of the series obviously do as well. "Halo: Reach" will still be getting some post-launch love from Bungie, however, at least according to the commitment vocalized by their community director Brian Jarrard.
"Microsoft still owns the Halo IP — but we will still support 'Reach' post-release and we have a great relationship with our community, so we want to make sure we keep the game going," Jarrard told Develop. "There will be some portion of the studio focused on 'Halo: Reach.'"
That support should at least mean that basic bug fixes and multiplayer tweaks continue to flow through an open pipeline. That may or may not mean new Bungie-sculpted maps down the line, though from the tone of Jarrard's response, I wouldn't expect anything too fancy.
"But beyond that we will not be working on any more Halo — we will be completely focused on bringing our next universe to light," he explained. "From there Microsoft will take the Halo universe in the direction they see fit."
And that could be for the better. 360 owners will be watching Microsoft's next step with Halo. Bungie may have an even larger audience eying their new IP, though, since they're almost certain to go multiplatform.
Are you glad to know that Bungie will have a small team sticking around to support "Reach"? What do you think Microsoft should do with Halo now that Bungie is Activision-exclusive? Share your opinions in the comment section below.