Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Developer
Rumor confirmed: Bungie is free, kind of
Wow. The rumors were true -- Bungie is "evolving" its relationship with Microsoft, and "embarking on a path" to become, once again, an independent developer. Pretty amazing.Unfortunately, the press release from MS makes it sound like Bungie's not quite free and clear yet. Microsoft expects Bungie to keep developing Halo, and working with them on future Halo-related projects. But that could be Microsoft just trying to look at things through rose-colored glasses. Or then again, it might not: the official word from Bungie is that they remain partners, and "nothing has changed." What a shame.
My official guess (TM) is that Bungie will release a brand new intellectual property, and that it will arrive not only on the Xbox, but on other consoles as well (possibly including the Mac, but let's not count our chickens before they hatch). For all their talk of a split, Bungie still isn't as independent as it once was. Microsoft is still in the picture, and it's pretty unlikely that Bungie will go back to developing specifically for the Mac again any time soon.
via x3f -- thanks to everyone who sent this in.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tomjennings83 said 12:20PM on 10-05-2007
Man I really hope Bungie becomes independent again, that way they can make games exclusivley for mac and pc and not for stupid xbox 360. Microsoft screwed everyone when they baught Bungie
Reply
Quix said 12:49PM on 10-05-2007
I suppose being "partners" with Microsoft is better than being its "exclusive love slave."
While I still resent Bungie for turning its back on its family (the Mac community) and pimping itself out to Microsoft (for undoubtedly enormous amounts of cash), I will quickly forgive for a great new Mac game.
Reply
EatingPie said 12:54PM on 10-05-2007
Well, after $300M in Halo sales, you can BET Bungie is still going to make Halo 4!! Independent or not... okay, that depends on who actually owns the IP of Halo, but still.
-Pe
Reply
Christina Warren said 1:40PM on 10-05-2007
Microsoft still has equity interest - my guess is that their minority equity interest holdings in the new private company is minority only because it is less than 51% -- I wouldn't be surprised if they held 49% of the private stock. Plus, I'm sure that in agreeing to spin the company off, Microsoft got a pretty solid publishing/development deal that will hold them to many of the same exclusivity provisions that come with being owned my Microsoft outright.
I'm sure that some of their new products will be available on the PC and maybe even other consoles (though they might have an exclusivity window for XBox 360 a la Rockstar) but I'll believe new Mac games when I see it. Which isn't to say that wouldn't be awesome, but so much of that would require a completely different code team, I don't necessarily expect them to allocate those resources when they have a franchise that grossed more than a quarter million dollars in one week.
Reply
motech said 4:23PM on 10-05-2007
a better way to TM is option 2 - ™
Reply
James Matthews said 11:18PM on 10-05-2007
Granted Microsoft is Evil, after all they are responsible for the world's first mass-marketed AI (When's the last time windows DIDN'T throw a fit when you wanted to change something?) but they have done ONE good thing. Anyone remember when HALO 2 was Originally supposed to be released? Something like a full year before it was actually if memory serves. It wasn't until Microsoft bought out Bungie that the game actually made it to the market. So one the one hand, yes, Bungie does make incredibly good games but on the other, their follow through does leave a bit to be desired.
Reply
Greg G said 1:32PM on 10-06-2007
I'd really like a good version of Halo on the Mac, not to mention a company that doesn't feed into MS's greedy little hands.
Reply
basscadet said 1:39PM on 10-06-2007
uh... ok... I have a company that makes games for Mac (not the most popular game platform by far) and along comes MS throwing tons of cash my way to make a tremendously successful game trilogy...
... and I'd blow all that away in order to "stay loyal to X community"????? Are you guys serious?
would you actually recommend such a business decision to a friend of yours?
Reply
dappleganger said 2:06PM on 10-06-2007
This is good to hear.
Reply