Fuck me, every time I put on a clean pair of pants, something like this happens. I won’t make this blog too long-winded, as I’m sure you want details. So here they are, in a nice list format for easy reading.
-Bungie is now an independent company, entitled Bungie LLC. They have no real ties to Microsoft anymore…
-..but they still have a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft.
-Microsoft owns the IP rights to Halo, so in theory, Bungie may not make the next Halo installment (see below for delicious commentary).
-Bungie is still working on DLC for Halo 3, as well as collaborating on the Halo/Peter Jackson project.
-Both companies <3 each other, hoping to make Bungie/Msoft babies in the future.
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What does this ultimately mean for us gamers? Not much, really. We’ll still get Halo, and I’m willing to bet Msoft will give Bungie the contract to make Halo 4. The only real difference is that Bungie can make any game they want to now.
Reported by Joystiq, the only IP that Bungie actually owns is Marathon, so we could potentially see a sequel for that in the near future. And who knows, maybe Bungie will surprise us and make something completely unique, something that doesn’t involve killing aliens with guns in both hands.
And because both companies still love each other unconditionally, I’m going to predict that Bungie stays pro-Microsoft, declining to bring any of their games to competing platforms. But, hey, never say never, right?
I think this is a good day for console gaming. Now we might actually get to see if Bungie still has it in them to make a game that is not Halo related, I am stoked.
This is tremendous news in my opinion. While Bungie wants to branch out, they didn’t want to break away violently from MS. Meanwhile Microsoft seems to realize that they simply couldn’t make these guys work on Halo until their dying days. Both companies will remain allies without choking each other to death, and in the end that means more variety and creativity.
Some might find it a bit of a stretch, but I think this is something we don’t often see in Japan, and this is a problem. We still have Sega, Namco, etc. who seem confident in clinging to Sony and their consoles, despite the success of the Wii and the 360’s slid western presense. Square will support non Sony platforms with half assed gusto, more content to resurret a sinking ship than to make even more money. Simply put, we need more mutual understanding like this between publishers and developers, rather than the former trying to snuff out the latter, as well as calling all the (often wrong) shots.