http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Bungie+Studios+Departing+From+Microsoft/article9139.htm Report: Bungie Studios Departing From Microsoft Marcus Yam (Blog) - October 3, 2007 1:30 AM Unconfirmed: Microsoft lets go of Bungie Studios but retains rights to Halo In what may be nearly unbelievable news, word is circulating around the web that Bungie Studios’ days under Microsoft may be over. The initial news first started from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, an outlet known for its Microsoft-related information, and has since grown legs as other media have followed up on the story. According to an email received by the Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft has released Bungie Studios from its ownership. The deal is apparently done, but Microsoft wishes to hold the public announcement until after October 6 for the protection of quarterly financial results. The email reads: “Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to "handle" everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie [sic] they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity.” Game Informer checked with its own sources and reports that Bungie and Microsoft separated on October 1, 2007. According to the magazine, Bungie did not wish to be tied down to indefinitely making Halo games. As a result, shareholders of Bungie bought the studio name back from Microsoft for “an unstated, but significant amount of money.” Microsoft will retain all rights to the Halo franchise, assuring that the Master Chief will never grace competitors’ systems, and will also hold “the right of first refusal on future games,” meaning that Halo 3 probably won’t be the last Xbox 360 exclusive title from Bungie Studios. When asked for comment, Microsoft’s PR representatives did not deny or confirm the validity of such events. “To your question, there's been no such announcement. We can't comment further,” said one representative to 1UP, while another said, “There's been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3.” It’s unlikely that any official confirmation or denial of Bungie’s split from Microsoft will appear before the end of the week. The only thing certain right now is that the door locks on Bungie’s offices in Kirkland, WA have all been changed – perhaps as a sign of a change in ownership.
It very well may be - but if they dissolve a company they own, they do it formally and legally. You can't just let something go- especially a public company like Microsoft (Where is the Form 8-K? ). If you owned a company, and you had other partners or shareholders, you can't just take corporate assets, you can't just "let them go" for nothing if there is value there. With a valuable asset and a valuable brand like Bungie, dissolution, rather than sale, seems unlikely. Unless they dissolve Bungie and keep all the assets and incorporate them into Microsoft - in whicih case it's more like Bungie's employees being let go rather than Bungie itself being let go.
So it looks like this was true (or at least partly true...haven't read all the fine details yet): http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12834 Official press release also at the link.
I imagine it's pretty damn taxing to work on the same title for so long (kind of how Kojima keeps saying he wants to stop making Metal Gear games). It's going to be nice to see what Bungie can come up with now that they can devote their resources to different titles.
Technically, I think Bungie can get anyone (including Sony) to publish their games. I'm guessing Microsoft might have the right to reject any projects before Bungie goes after other publishers (not sure if this was confirmed though...or if it is more complicated than this). Of course, I'm not counting the Halo games, where MS will certainly be the publisher since they own the IP. If they develop for any platforms other than the 360/PC (or possibly Mac), it would probably be the PSP or DS (where MS could still be the publisher I guess). Maybe down the line, they'll look into developing for the Wii and/or PS3, but it doesn't seem like they're interested in that at the moment.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071005/ap_on_hi_te/halo_spinoff;_ylt=AvxSm81.IDFG64sm.vH8iAys0NUE SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. has spun off Bungie Studios, creator of the blockbuster "Halo" video game trilogy, but said Friday it will maintain close ties with the company and a minority stake in it. I doubt you'll see anything for the PS3, however, the DS and Wii and PC will probably get more games.
Hmm...heard something about Rare trying to become independent like this as well, although this was just an off-comment made is passing when discussing the Bungie deal (so take with a huge pile of salt...of course, I was basically saying that with Bungie). Not sure how I would have responded a couple weeks ago if you told me that MS would "lose" Bungie, Rare, and Bizarre Creations (technically, they never owned Bizarre, but it was strange to see Activision snatch them up with seemingly little difficulty). Wonder if this might be a new direction for Microsoft, as DaDakota sort of mentioned earlier. I've been kind of surprised that MS hasn't really attempted to acquire any new developers recently (basically the opposite of what Sony and even Nintendo have done), but I guess they prefer to stick with making exclusive deals with developers (some of which include new IPs owned by MS).
Are the other hardware companies going to feel comfortable doing the NDA thing with Bungie considering the linkage and minority interest of Microsoft in Bungie?
Sony owns a minority interest in Square-Enix, but that hasn't really seemed to stop Microsoft and Nintendo from wanting to do business with them (or vice versa). There are probably other companies in a similar position, although that's the only example I know off the top of my head. Of course, none of the 3 companies (including Sony) have really published a Square-Enix game in a long time IIRC, so I suppose things might be slightly different in this case (Bungie would have to publish games themselves, or possibly get a publisher like EA or Take-Two to do so). Speaking of Take-Two, I wonder if Bungie has any interest in working with them since I believe Take Two own the rights to Oni and Myth, two previous franchises developed by Bungie (although I have no idea if the teams that made those games are still even at Bungie).
Rare sucks anyway. They haven't made a really good game in a long long time. M$ got swindled when they paid to take them in. I'm curious what Bungie's next game will be now that they'll have more creative freedom.
I wouldn't put any money on Sony getting any Bungie games. The deal essentially puts Bungie as a second party to MS. It's kind of like Insomniac to Sony. Bungie has the creative freedom to make the game they want now. The catch is that MS gets first dibs on whatever Bungie is creating. If MS says no, then Bungie can go find another publisher to release it's game, but like MS is ever going to say no for a Bungie title. The only non-MS platform I can see Bungie creating a game for is the DS. That thing is a cash cow. So essentially, we as the end user won't really see anything different... Well except for interesting new IP's from Bungie! This is certainly good news!
I haven't played it, but it seems like their last game (Viva Pinata) was pretty good...although a bit strange (maybe even by Rare's standards). But yeah, it definitely seems like MS got screwed there, if nothing else, just due to how long it takes Rare to put out a game period. I think I did read somewhere that Rare was sharing some of their technology with other MGS developers (thought I read something about Forza 2 using Rare tech), so maybe there were some advantages there (probably not worth the money MS paid though). Even with Rare's lack of great output, they're still probably one of the better 1st party studios owned by MS. I could possibly see them put out a PSP game (or maybe PSP2), although a DS game would probably be the better choice (depends on what they're doing). *edit: A PSN game might be possible too, although I'm guessing they're rather lean towards a XBLA (or XBLA-exclusive) game.* Hmm...I'm sure there were numerous reasons as to why Bungie decided to go independent (and why MS "let" them do that), but I'm guessing that part of the reason was that MS was saying no to a Bungie title (or, at the very least, they're weren't 100% supportive of the idea Bungie came up with). I believe they ended up canceling the project Bungie was going to work on after the original Halo (wonder if Bungie will go back to that?). Certainly wouldn't doubt that MS would say no given some of their strange decisions with developers working on new IPs in previous years (although saying no to Bungie is a little different that saying no to Tim Schafer, Ninja Theory, Level 5, etc.). There's also the possibility of Bungie working with Take Two (as I mentioned earlier), although their game would probably still be 360/PC exclusive (unless they got some PS3/Wii devkits before then). Not sure how likely that is without knowing how much Bungie cares about the IPs they left behind...they probably would like to move on to something new that they would own the rights to.
Rare hasn't made a great game since the N64 days. It's amazing how much they've ridden off of that era. Viva doesn't look all that appealing to me. But even if you want to count that as being above mediocre ... all their other games have been sub-par, even though they do take all that time to churn them out. I don't see why anyone would be mourning the loss of their bargain bin games being exclusive to one system.
Oh I agree that they've fallen off a bit since the N64 days (well...more than just a bit), but they're still one of the better (360) devs MS still has AFAIK (this isn't really a complement towards Rare though). Turn10 and Lionhead are probably better when you consider game quality and sales (although Lionhead certainly takes their time, even more so than Rare I believe). Not much else after that I think, unless I'm totally forgetting some studios. I thought Artoon and a few other developers were owned by MS (basically developers that weren't as good as Rare), but I looked it up, and I think they were all independent/dissolved/sold off. Maybe I should just change my previous statement to "Rare is still one of the few (360) devs MS still has AFAIK."
Halo Games Maker to Be Independent of Microsoft Microsoft said yesterday that it was giving up its controlling ownership of Bungie Software, the video game subsidiary that developed the hugely popular Halo franchise, including its latest iteration, Halo 3.
Look I sold Digital Anvil to MS in 2001, when DA was being released 2 years ago and the team was being allowed to make a deal WITH their IPs....it pissed off the Bungie people, Ed Fries had promised Bungie that they would get some good royalties from Halo 2...but then Ed left and MS failed to deliver on the royalties. Thus, the Bungie guys made a deal to leave...... Happens all the time Sam...and the announcement will come in time. DD
