Bungie Leaving Microsoft!! You heard it here first folks
A friend of mine who has someone close to them that works at Bungie has just been dying to tell me a secret about their future. Since the NDA officially expire today the sent me and email with the details. I have full faith in this contact.

The email is as follows :

“So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week.
You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft gets to keep all rights to the Halo franchise, but as today Bungie no longer part of Microsoft. Ask anyone who works there to search the global address book, they’re no longer in there. Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today but if they wait till the 10/6 the impact wont effect the quarterly results. However today is the actual official date and the day the NDAs expire, however you still didn’t hear this from me.”

“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 they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They’ll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)”

“What a way to say thank you.”

Rumour link

I can’t see this.

Microsoft OWN 100% Bungie…

I mean people MIGHT leave - but Bungie is part of Microsoft now.

Right - I thought MS bought Bungie lock, stock and barrel as part of the assimilation. I can’t imagine MS opening them up to develop for other platforms.

If somehow this is true however, this would be awesome for the Mac.

I can see it now - the next installment of Myth in 12 months!! 

[quote author=“rikki”]Right - I thought MS bought Bungie lock, stock and barrel as part of the assimilation. I can’t imagine MS opening them up to develop for other platforms.

If somehow this is true however, this would be awesome for the Mac.

I can see it now - the next installment of Myth in 12 months!! 

You know Bungie - they PROMISE one year - it’ll take ‘em 3.

I agree it all sounds too bizarre for words, but perhaps the developers simply said “non” to Microsoft and refused to work on any more projects for them unless they were given their freedom back.

Maybe it went something along the lines of: “We have something that makes Halo look like child’s play, but either you let us do it our way, or we go our own way after our non-compete clauses expire. You want it delivered for XBox first, then you let us off the leash.”

Who the hell knows. Would be a fascinating turn of events if its true though!

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]I agree it all sounds too bizarre for words, but perhaps the developers simply said “non” to Microsoft and refused to work on any more projects for them unless they were given their freedom back.

Maybe it went something along the lines of: “We have something that makes Halo look like child’s play, but either you let us do it our way, or we go our own way after our non-compete clauses expire. You want it delivered for XBox first, then you let us off the leash.”

Who the hell knows. Would be a fascinating turn of events if its true though!

Indeed - but they would also be losing out on all the royalties for Halo 3!  I don’t think my principals would stretch quite that far.

[quote author=“rattyuk”]but they would also be losing out on all the royalties for Halo 3!

I don’t think you can say what the terms of any deal might be.. everything’s negotiable after all.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“rattyuk”]but they would also be losing out on all the royalties for Halo 3!

I don’t think you can say what the terms of any deal might be.. everything’s negotiable after all.

Something that i didn’t know about Apple and Bungie until very recently… you can read more of it at http://www.marketingapple.com

“One of the best games ever for the Mac was a little product known as Marathon from a little company known as Bungie.  Keep in mind that Steve Jobs did NOT want the Mac to be a gaming system for he feared it would not be taken seriously by business users who were the target audience way back in 1984.  As a result the Mac suffered (and continues to suffer) from not having great games, and very few exclusive games.  But, at the MacWorld 1999 tradeshow during his keynote, Steve Jobs introduced the follow up to that Bungie hit, another Mac-only game simply called Halo.

It was a ground breaking demo - the effect being that the Mac had the power to redefine the PC gaming experience.  However, Microsoft was watching the keynote and they were searching for a breakthrough platform exclusive for their yet-to-be-released system, Xbox.  So on June 19, 2000 Microsoft acquired Bungie and in one fell swoop killed the Mac version, got the killer app they were looking for,  transferred the buzz into interest in their system, blocked the Mac from encroaching on the PC’s territory as a gaming system, and stuck it to the Mac faithful who were waiting for Halo for more than a year.”

Obviously, there would be an extended lock in and non-compete agreement, but it would eventually expire. If the principals of Bungie had this intention all along, they may have negotiated a split from the beginning. It appears they have continued to operate as a separate entity within MS even today. The natural way for MS to have handled it would be to transition the people into MS employees in MS offices; and to retire the Bungie name.

Conspiracy theory: SJ was in on this from the beginning and said: I can’t help you right now with that kind of money, but come back in 5 years; MS only want Halo and a couple of updates to help sell their game console, so don’t give them anything more, and I’ll see you again in five years.

[quote author=“singularity99”][quote author=“Tommo_UK”][quote author=“rattyuk”]but they would also be losing out on all the royalties for Halo 3!

I don’t think you can say what the terms of any deal might be.. everything’s negotiable after all.

Something that i didn’t know about Apple and Bungie until very recently… you can read more of it at http://www.marketingapple.com

“One of the best games ever for the Mac was a little product known as Marathon from a little company known as Bungie.  Keep in mind that Steve Jobs did NOT want the Mac to be a gaming system for he feared it would not be taken seriously by business users who were the target audience way back in 1984.  As a result the Mac suffered (and continues to suffer) from not having great games, and very few exclusive games.  But, at the MacWorld 1999 tradeshow during his keynote, Steve Jobs introduced the follow up to that Bungie hit, another Mac-only game simply called Halo.

It was a ground breaking demo - the effect being that the Mac had the power to redefine the PC gaming experience.  However, Microsoft was watching the keynote and they were searching for a breakthrough platform exclusive for their yet-to-be-released system, Xbox.  So on June 19, 2000 Microsoft acquired Bungie and in one fell swoop killed the Mac version, got the killer app they were looking for,  transferred the buzz into interest in their system, blocked the Mac from encroaching on the PC’s territory as a gaming system, and stuck it to the Mac faithful who were waiting for Halo for more than a year.”

Yep. I remember when it happened. Ticked alot of people off. 

Depends on the deal. If they were employees, they might not get royalties at all.

Bungie were a great company. God I grew up with them. They were solely responsible for my network skills as a bunch of us learned how to network stuff together just to play Marathon. This put me in good stead for most of the work I have based my life on.

However they were crap at actually delivering product. BUT we forgave them this because when they did deliver it was usually beyond what was promised and had a lot of thought behind it.

I’m around 1/2 way through Halo 3 and it’s OK - but you know? I actually enjoyed Bioshock better this year. Sorry to sound a bit cynical but Bioshock delivered on all those things that Bungie used to be good at.

It’s ironic because through the ads I didn’t get Bioshock. It was only when I downloaded the demo that I “got” the game. It was beautiful like playing a shoot em up in the Myst universe and I found the twist and turns in the story line not only interesting but exciting.

Just my 2 cents.

And sorry to sound not as excited by the news as TOMMO was earlier in the day it is just that I have a slightly more realistic take on the news than the fanboi side of me would like to admit to.

I’ve got a better story than Bungie being spun off to it’s own company again.

Jack Tretton is giving up on the console market citing the overwhelming the success of competitor Microsoft’s / Bungie’s Halo 3 which sold $170 million in its first 24 hours.

“We fully realize that past success is no guarantee of future success, but it does give you some perspective.” says Tretton’s blog “At the end of the day, it’s always been about the games. To push the boundaries of gaming beyond where they currently lie takes a great deal of risk.”

Sony’s platform the Play Station 3 was banking on games such as Lair to drive sales, but poor reviews and lack luster sales have lead to Sony’s PS3 in last place amongst the current generation consoles.

Faced with imminent defeat, Tretton determined the game division would honor the Japanese tradition of hara-kiri, and “fall on his sword” rather than continue to shame the rest of the company with its continued disgraceful performance.

Sony will continue to produce PlayStation 2’s however which are still a booming profit center, and encourages game developers to produce future games for that “bargain” platform.

Peter Moore president of EA Sports and formerly of Microsoft says of the ongoing console war “we’re still in the console skirmishes.” Commenting that we’re still in the single-digit millions (maybe, 10 millions for the Xbox 360), in a race that publishers and console manufacturers expect to hit the hundreds of millions.”

Nintendo was unavailable for comment at time of press.

The above is satirical.

Confirmed:

11:03 EDT MSFT
theflyonthewall.com:  Microsoft-MSFT says Bungie will become an independent company
Microsoft announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the Halo franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned Halo intellectual property, as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

[quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Confirmed:

11:03 EDT MSFT
theflyonthewall.com:  Microsoft-MSFT says Bungie will become an independent company
Microsoft announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the Halo franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned Halo intellectual property, as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

This is potentially great news for Mac gaming.

[quote author=“Play Ultimate”][quote author=“Tommo_UK”]Confirmed:

11:03 EDT MSFT
theflyonthewall.com:  Microsoft-MSFT says Bungie will become an independent company
Microsoft announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the Halo franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned Halo intellectual property, as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

This is potentially great news for Mac gaming.

What Mac gaming?

Oh wait, do you mean the one where you run Microsoft Windows on your Intel Mac so you can play Oblivion?