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Bungie to become independent News
Xbox 360 PC News by Tom Bramwell
Bungie is to become an independent company again, Microsoft confirmed today.
The platform holder said it will retain an equity interest in the Kirkland, Washington-based developer.
It will also continue to publish games based on the Microsoft-owned Halo IP and other future properties developed by Bungie.
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.
Bungie studio head Harold Ryan described the move as "an exciting evolution" of the relationship with Microsoft.
"We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s 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," he said.
Bungie's most recent game, Halo 3, achieved USD 300 million in sales in its first week, Microsoft said yesterday.
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GuiltySpark
05/10/07 @ 15:12
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Ohhh, didn't actually think this would happen when I heard the rumours.
Ah well, at least Microsoft still have Halo. |
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Eighthours
05/10/07 @ 15:14
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I'm in a 900 post comments thread!
This is about as good as people could hope for, really. Clearly Bungie didn't enjoy all the pressure of the past few years, and wanted to take a step back. Getting to keep their offices and all the fancy crap is rather nice. Plus they'll still have access to MS's amazing testing centre and all that lark. MS needs Bungie more than the other way around, and both should do okay out of the deal. |
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Kirly_Wombat
05/10/07 @ 15:16
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Wait until Microsoft get annoyed with something and do a hostile take over, we all know what they are like.
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rhinoxious
05/10/07 @ 15:16
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Well blow me down, i thought that rumor was horse-shit!
I'd love to know the details of why and any ongoing contractural agreements? Can bungie work on other platforms? Are they tied to Microsoft Games Studios as a publisher? How much stock does MS own exactly? Need more info! |
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How does a company you own become an independant company again? buying out themselves?
M$ purchased them, funded them till now. I guess if halo wasnt such a cash cow, M$ wouldnt bend over backwards to accomdate the dev team. Still. Multiplatform bungie titles? all of the success of a M$ funded studio. Interesting. |
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FlamingCarrot
05/10/07 @ 15:26
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I still remember the Halo ad's with the Geforce 2 prior to the MS buyout....They made some cracking PC games and hopefully will again.
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rhinoxious
05/10/07 @ 15:29
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Like the man says, you won't notice any difference in the immediate future.
Bungie have being doing Halo (and Marathon) for so long though I'm not sure what to expect of them next. Can't imagine we'll see anything soon though, first big non-halo game Xmas 2009? |
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hula hoops
05/10/07 @ 15:33
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I think all this means is that Bungie will have more negotiating power with Microsoft with regards to future titles. Rather than being treated as some employees of Microsoft, Bungie will have more power to ask for bigger payment, bigger bonuses etc.
I don't think they will start making games for other platforms anytime soon. What will happen would be they will start to expand and make other games rather than just Halo but still for Microsoft. It is really not in Bungie's interests to bite the hand that feed them for years. |
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Gosh!
I suppose Microsoft couldn't really do anything else but let them go - if they'd held on to the company against the wishes of the key people, chances are the lot of them would just have left and set up on their own, leaving Microsoft with, well, not much really. As it is, Microsoft have retained a bit of goodwill and a decent working relationship with the company. It'd be nice to see a bit more focus coming back onto the PC now, rather than Xbox exclusives. |
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barnard666
05/10/07 @ 15:36
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Thats plain weird, perhaps MS didnt actually believe enough in what ever Bungie plan to do for their next step, and because of that MS decided they didnt really want to fund it.
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JetSetWilly
05/10/07 @ 15:41
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I'm just looking forward to how Joystiq report this after they threw all their weight behind it being BS!
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JavaJawaUK
05/10/07 @ 15:59
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Interesting. The community gets Bungie, both Microsoft and Bungie get a heap of cash, we still get Halo IP games/stuff. Best deal for the long-term really.
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Machiavellian
05/10/07 @ 16:01
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Still looks like a win win for both companies. MS is still the publishers so they will get first rights to any new games Bungie wants to deliever. Just like Gears of War, you will probably not see that game go to the PS3 and you can believe that MS having a long term publishing contract with Bungie, you will not see any PS3 games coming out of Bungie anytime soon.
I would love to see how the contract broke down because I do not see MS giving anything away unless they will benefit more from the transaction. To buy back that majority stake from MS must have cost a lot of ends or the terms of the agreement was pretty sweet for MS that they felt they didn't need to own Bungie to continue to reap the benefits of their efforts. |
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kangarootoo
05/10/07 @ 16:08
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My initial thought was "they might have bought themselves back out", but actually I'm not so sure.
As has been suggested on this thread, core Bungie may simply have not wanted to work on Halo anymore, MS own the IP, so they can go their seperate ways without anyone really losing out. MS still own a share stake in Bungie too as noted, so they aren't losing their cash as such (though Halo3 has probably made back a fair chunk of the initial investment). Anyone know what MS originally paid for Bungie all those years ago? |
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"We're too successful to be giving our profits you now, Bill. And we've got developing for Windows/XBox pretty much nailed. So, ya know... bigger fish! But you can still publish! How's that sound?!"
"So we're the EA to your Free Radical? I feel so cheap! And you'll probably bog off to Ubi when your next best piece of IP comes along!" "Err... it's not you it's me? Umm... I love you but aren't IN love with you?" |
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Mentalist(air)
05/10/07 @ 16:24
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"we will continue to invest in our 'Halo' entertainment property with Bungie and other partners" - Shane Kim
'our entertainment property' means MGS still owns Halo. Not that you'd want to play it on a machine with its analogue sticks in the wrong place, anyway :) Hopefully that'll sort out MGS's rumoured cashflow problems. |
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Machiavellian
05/10/07 @ 16:33
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Personally, I am thinking that a select bunch within Bungie wanted to go back to doing PC/MAC games. Being MS console dev house especially since Bungie was a MAC/PC dev house probably rubbed some people in the wrong way. I actually do not believe the next game from Bungie will be a console game but instead a MAC/PC game.
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