Bungie leaves Microsoft!

[JoeSp]

Bungie has left the Microsoft fold. And as an independent they could be making titles for the PS3 and Wii:

'Halo' creators leave Microsoft - Games - MSNBC.com

 

[hoky]

Yeah but Microsoft gets to choose which games they publish before anybody else. So whatever game they deem well be a seller on any box they can publish it and make it 360 exclusive.

Saying that what if they decide to publish every game bungie develops?

 

[BigTimMN]

Bungie doesnt have to agree to an exclusive, they could go to a cross platform option and if M$ says No go on teh 360, they could leave them out, which could bad for M$.

 

[JoeSp]

They want to establish themselves apart from M$ even though they will still be excepting M$ money on the Halo franchise. It will be interesting to see what Bungie will be up to as an independant.

 

[meStevo]

I like this analysis by a poster from over on FoHguild.org:

When I read about this, it makes me think of a situation that has been touched on earlier in the thread. Where a publisher is looking at the $$ making aspects of a game but the developer is looking to go out and create new games, to keep their creativity and stop boredom. If you think about it, what Microsoft has done might be a pretty good thing indeed for their own interests and for the interests of Bungie. Keeping a good company together, rather than allowing them to split up.

Look at what has been happening for years in the gaming industry. Blizzard & Vivendi: Major developers leaving Blizzard because of Vivendi's pressure to continue to pump out WoW material, and basically nothing else until recently (SC2). I.E. Hellgate London devs, Guildwars devs, and a couple of other devs, left Blizzard to create their own gaming studios because of their unwillingness to continue to churn out the same game content (WoW), year after year.

Look at another almost failed or failing operation, Rare. Top notch Rare developers leaving because of their unhappiness (i'm assuming here) of management or direction their company was going with a major publisher (Microsoft) under control.

Other examples: Interplay & Black Isle = Troika = dead. Microsoft & FASFA = dead. and a slew of others that I can't remember now.

What my conclusion is that basically Microsoft might be learning here and is starting to understand the game developer enviornment. To keep their interests met (creating awesome games that make tons and tons of $$$$$$), they must allow their developers a more free reign. In Bungie's case, letting them go independent (so that the company feels free to persue new projects) but retaining an exclusive publishing deal(first right to deny to publish) with their games(I'm assuming something like this will be happening for a while). If they didn't do what they did, Bungie dev's would of probably jumped ship. This event will obviously have a huge dramatic effect on how some publishers will be doing things with their AAA dev houses. They might not all let their inhouse dev's go but might think twice before forcing them to produce the same content, year after year.

 

[JoeSp]

Bungie creates fun games. It will be good for them to get out from under M$ hand. This will allow them to make whatever type of game that excites them. When this type of creativity is allowed the end result is that the gamer is the receipiant of a better product. As for M$ having rights to deny to publish -- that is only on current titles that they currently produce like the Halo series. Other then that they have the right as any other console maker to deal with Bungie on exclusivity.

If Bungie comes up with a new game M$ does not have the rights to that title. Going independant means you are no longer controled by M$ in what you can create and publish. Having said that, it will be up to Bungie to determine if they want to take M$ money to make a title exclusive to the XBOX360 or make it a cross-platform game. This is a very exciting move for both Bungie and gamers -- especially those gamers on the PS3 and Wii.

 

[shanewalker]

I played Marathon games on my Mac way back in the day.

I'm currently enjoying a little retrospective of their Halo universe on my Xbox and one thing is clear...they owe a LOT of their success w/ Halo to their early work on the Mac. In essence, they've been evolving the gameplay and story ideas they began in the mid 90s. I'm sure they're, bluntly put, sick to death of the Marathon/Halo space marine thang and would like to do something else. Microsoft, like any movie studio would be w/ a successful franchise, would love to just keep milking this cow.

Bungie will do well by re-establishing themselves w/ a bit more freedom/independence...and moving forward to other platforms and other types of games. They're a solid creative lot--I look to great things and hopefully a great deal of surprising developements/announcements in the future .

 

[Legato10]

now.. I wonder if EA will ever consume great development house that is bungie... it may just be a matter of time

 

[IcEWoLF]

EA is doing great with the release of Crisys.
1 game out of 5 EA releases are good.

 

[shanewalker]

Yeah, EA is a far cry from the old days when they put out one groundbreaking title after another.

I had almost every game they made at the time...and still have a couple of them just for the collectible packaging.

Of course, that time was the mid-80s and they were games for my Apple IIe (Bird and Dr.J One on One, Archon, Standing Stones, Skyfox, Pinball Construction Set or Seven Cities of Gold, anyone?). Man those were good days for computer gaming--and between Electronic Arts, Sierra Online, Origin, Broderbund and lets not forget glorious Infocom, they were TRULY revolutionary times.

Sigh.