April 29, 2010

The biggest story of the month *updated*


*Edit* Just to clarify because a lot of people don't fully understand the situation: Bungie is currently and will remain an independent studio owned by nobody. The Activion deal is for funding and distributing games only. In addition, it would seem that Bungie has specified some more details of the deal, stating that Activision will only publish one particular (non-Halo, because Halo is owned by Microsoft) game series that they are working on for multiple platforms. It's similar to the deal Epic has with Microsoft in wich the House of Windows (see what I did there?) publishes the Gears of War series, but other games such as the Unreal series can be published by whomever for whatever platform. Bungie could, if they wanted, make another game series and make it exclusively published by Sony for the PlayStation if it tickled their fancy (don't freak out- that was just hypothetical). In addition to all that, Bungie gains the right to develop Activision-owned game properties if they so choose. So if Activion ever wanted to do Call of Duty: Future Warfare, Bungie could hypothetically make it for them. Also, that logo is a joke. Bungie did, however, register this trademark in March. Nobody knows what the logo will be used for.  

Original Post: Or maybe it was when Activision fired the heads of Infinity Ward who then set up a new studio, Respawn, followed by about 30 other Infinity Ward employees leaving and joining them. I can't decide. In any case, they both involve Activision which, if you're not aware, is this decade's Electronic Arts. Did I mention that Respawn has a partnership with EA? Yeah, they're the good guys now.

So Bungie finalized a ten year publishing deal with Activivison (aka, Satan) today. Yes, people are pretty unhappy because everyone hates Actvision randomly, like everyone hated EA randomly through most of the last decade. Although what they did to Infinity Ward was pretty crappy. Anyway, this new deal apparently gives Bungie complete control and ownership over their IP. Activision plans to distribute Bungie's new games all over the world across several major platforms. I certainly hope everything works out for the best. Ten years is a long time, and I know people who have so much hatred toward Activision that they won't be buying a new Bungie game for the next ten years no matter how awesome it is.

Nice interview about the whole ordeal here.

2 comments:

  1. I missed the pole, so YES I would totally shell out infinity cash for the Legendary edition Halo Reach. But on more pertinent matters, I think that Bungie merging with Activision is fine, under these conditions.
    1)Bungie stays the same (aka no crazy Activision oversight squashing the talent of the Bungie people)
    2)They don't change thier logo to that thing at the top of the post.

    Other than those two things, it could be good. I mean now we can blame all of Bungie's future flaws on Activision, so its a win situation in my book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Breitling Watch
    is part of the Bentley Motors T
    series. Since, buying it I've become a huge fan of Bentley Motors
    and it's my intention, when I save enough money, to buy the Navitimer Comsonaute - another beautiful timepiece, there are several mechanical specs that are common in all variations in the Navitimer Watches
    series.

    ReplyDelete