Bungie and Activision Announce Exclusive, Worldwide Partnership.

[Doug]

Good riddance Bungie what...all they have ever made are those balnd Halo games. Maybe once Activision screws up their fan base and runs it into the ground we can finally stop this Halo nonsense.

ouch man not cool

yeah not cool. I like Halo.

Bad news for you then, I'm afraid - get ready to have to pay $10 for access to the good guns, a new Halo forced out every year, regardless of quality, and exactly the same as the last Halo aside from a few comestic changes...

 

[AncientYoungSon]

Good riddance Bungie what...all they have ever made are those balnd Halo games. Maybe once Activision screws up their fan base and runs it into the ground we can finally stop this Halo nonsense.

Decidedly not true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie

I was a Bungie fan back when all they had made was Marathon and I see this as a terrible move for Bungie.

They're capable of creating so many new franchises. It's a shame to see them with a publisher who is guaranteed to milk their next franchise to death.

 

[MetaKio]

And whilst I understand that Activision will be able to finance Bungie's long term goals, I feel that you are frighteningly right Furburt: Activision easily have the financial weight to 'acquire' Bungie with a forceful takeover if they desire. And as you said, we can kiss goodbye to their creative control...

You don't have to worry about a hostile takeover, since Bungie is privately held. Only publicly traded companies have to worry about being bought out against their will. Still, Bungie's private owners could get greedy and go public or even sell to Activision.

Ah, thank you, I wasn't entirely on the privatisation of Bungie. I guess that eases one or two worries for me. I find it difficult posting on a topic like this because I wish not to sound like a Halo fanboy... but a fan of the best interests of the developer and its future. Too much negativity towards Activision lately has made me partially sceptical towards them to say the least, but hopefully you'll agree that it's understandable.

Then again, maybe Activision are trying to move on from the whole mess with IW and try and gain some trust back. They will want to protect their future and regain the interest of the public, whilst Bungie will want to protect their integrity and independence... perhaps it could be more advantageous than I initially speculated by them forming a partnership.

I guess time will tell.

 

[nothingdeletemeplease]

Yeah Yeah I know it just that's all that anyone ever talks about is halo halo halo I would look forward to new games for them if they ever will now that they teamed up with the evil beast that is Activision....Robert Kotick is evil.

 

[Adam Rose]

This is clearly a joke

 

[Tony2077]

Good riddance Bungie what...all they have ever made are those balnd Halo games. Maybe once Activision screws up their fan base and runs it into the ground we can finally stop this Halo nonsense.

ouch man not cool

yeah not cool. I like Halo.

Bad news for you then, I'm afraid - get ready to have to pay $10 for access to the good guns, a new Halo forced out every year, regardless of quality, and exactly the same as the last Halo aside from a few comestic changes...

good lord enough of that crap already i swear its getting old

 

[Korten12]

Good riddance Bungie what...all they have ever made are those balnd Halo games. Maybe once Activision screws up their fan base and runs it into the ground we can finally stop this Halo nonsense.

ouch man not cool

yeah not cool. I like Halo.

Bad news for you then, I'm afraid - get ready to have to pay $10 for access to the good guns, a new Halo forced out every year, regardless of quality, and exactly the same as the last Halo aside from a few comestic changes...

but microsoft owns halo, not activision.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Interesting to see where Bungie goes now as far as games.

Hint: It will be an FPS, Halo to be more exact.
Well not in name, but you get the idea.

How do you know it won't be a new Marathon (in name this time)? Or Oni, Or a Myst Myth MMO/RTS.

Or something completely different, I suspect they've got a bit sick of doing FPS everything for the last eight years.

 

[Tony2077]

Good riddance Bungie what...all they have ever made are those balnd Halo games. Maybe once Activision screws up their fan base and runs it into the ground we can finally stop this Halo nonsense.

ouch man not cool

yeah not cool. I like Halo.

Bad news for you then, I'm afraid - get ready to have to pay $10 for access to the good guns, a new Halo forced out every year, regardless of quality, and exactly the same as the last Halo aside from a few comestic changes...

but microsoft owns halo, not activision.

oh yea that's right there private now but part of the deal is that Microsoft owns the halo ip

 

[Korten12]

Interesting to see where Bungie goes now as far as games.

Hint: It will be an FPS, Halo to be more exact.
Well not in name, but you get the idea.

How do you know it won't be a new Marathon (in name this time)? Or Oni, Or a Myst MMO.

Or something completely different, I suspect they've got a bit sick of doing FPS everything for the last eight years.

myst mmo? like the puzzle game? they already got a free mmo.

 

[Kawatoo]

Bungie...YOU FOOLS!

 

[joshuaayt]

Well, first of all, welcome to the Escapist, this being your first post and all. I hope you have a good time here.

As for the topic, there's something about it that makes it seem like it's a joke or something. I'm not sure, it just doesn't seem genuine.

However, if it is true, it's worrying, even though I don't like Bungie. Activision have been doing nothing but going down, down, down in consumer respect. I'd bet good money that they're planning to exploit Call Of Duty (or whatever they'll call it) down to the ground the same way they did Guitar Hero, and even though Bungie say they're still independent, there's no knowing what'll happen. It's very plausible that Activision will buy out Bungie to such a degree over time that they'll be able to assume creative control, to even more of a degree that Microsoft ever did.

Expect to see Halo 7: Exactly The Same, in stores soon!

Trying... Not... To... Make... Joke...
Anyway, this is somewhat surprising- Not the two groups I'd expect to see being cooked in the same pot together, no sir.

 

[Tony2077]

well time will tell

 

[fix-the-spade]

You don't have to worry about a hostile takeover, since Bungie is privately held. Only publicly traded companies have to worry about being bought out against their will. Still, Bungie's private owners could get greedy and go public or even sell to Activision.

They did sell to Microsoft not long before Combat Evolved came out. But life under Microsoft didn't go very well and after Halo 2/3's somewhat turbulent development they bought themselves back out and went private again. It looks unlikely they'll sell up to their publisher again, at least not anytime soon.

 

[Veleste]

Smaller companies often partner with Activision for a cash and distribution boost without any detrimental affect to their business. Blizzard did this and they are still 100% independent when it comes to game development. We all know how Blizzard love to take their sweet ass time making games and they stick to their core IP's, Activision haven't managed to beat them to bring out a game a year of sub standard quality or make any weird peripheral based games

That being said, Blizzard was quite a lucrative fish for Activision to reel in and they have a very strong leadership and history in the gaming community. Many independent developers might let Activision exert more control than they should which could be to the detriment to the company's development but Bungie are just as strong a company as Blizzard so I don't foresee any bad things to come from this partnership.

 

[Crayzor]

Oh well, at least more people will get to play whatever Bungie makes. And remember, Microsoft owns the Halo franchise, not Bungie.

 

[fix-the-spade]

myst mmo? like the puzzle game? they already got a free mmo.

Excuse me while I slap myself.

I meant Myth.

 

[wax88]

oh well looks like they sold their souls to the devil. look at what happened to infinity ward. if bobby's still there in a few year time i'll go as far as to say that bungie will never be the same again. oh bungie why did you have to join the dark side?

 

[Uncompetative]

Idiotic move. Activision haven't the patience to put up with Bungie's epic development schedules.

I wonder how this will affect their upcoming Ghost in the Shell game?

It will probably be released to coincide with the Steven Spielberg movie:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984029.html?categoryid=1237&cs=1

If you are unfamiliar with it, GITS is a mix of high-tech action:


and cyber-punk philsophy:


It preceded The Matrix.