It's official: Bungie branches off from Microsoft

by Christopher Grant { Oct 5th 2007 at 11:20AM }

Just goes to show you, never say never.

Bungie has just announced that they've "reached an unprecedented and exciting agreement" that they'll "branch off" from the Microsoft Game Studios mothership and become Bungie, LLC, an independent company, starting ... today (well, technically October 1, but effective immediately)! Worried about Halo going to another, less competent developer? No need, the studio will retain a long-term publishing agreement with Microsoft Game Studios for Halo titles. Other titles? All they're saying is that they "will continue to develop with [their] primary focus on Microsoft's platforms." With Microsoft holding a minority equity interest in the company, that's not surprising.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also retaining ownership of the Halo property (MGS chief Shane Kim calls it "our Halo entertainment property") as well as reserving first crack at publishing any Bungie-developed IP. We're left wondering if Marathon counts as a Halo property or a Bungie property ...

What are the immediate repercussions of this division? According to Bungie, "Practically speaking, nothing has changed and you guys won't see much, if any difference, for a while ...." We hope it means that somehow they'll be able to bring the same level of skill to a project besides Halo.

Read - Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company (Bungie press release)
Read - Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship (MS press release)

[Update: GameDaily spoke with Bungie's Frank O'Connor about the "evolution" which, he says, has been in the planning stages for "about a year." He confirms they're not through with Halo yet; they're still working on the Peter Jackson project and DLC for Halo 3. As for Marathon, despite its close ties to the Halo universe, Bungie retains the rights to that property, while MS owns Halo and Take-Two owns Myth and Oni.]

Tags: BreakingNews, Bungie, Halo-3, Halo3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Word Up, North Korea! @ Oct 5th 2007 11:24AM

They're Mac devs at heart, not suprising at all

Bloo @ Oct 5th 2007 12:03PM

*VERY* few of those mac devs from 6-7 years still comprise the huge team that is now Bungie

Word Up, North Korea! @ Oct 5th 2007 1:25PM

Jason Jones is still a bigwig in bungie, and he founded the damn thing.

dan stabbingworth @ Oct 5th 2007 1:34PM

Pimps at Sea goes multi-platform!!!

blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Oct 5th 2007 11:24AM

wow

i guess they really did buy back their stock

JL @ Oct 5th 2007 11:25AM

Hell has frozen over.

Kazi @ Oct 5th 2007 11:26AM

No, hell just thawed out.

Word Up, North Korea! @ Oct 5th 2007 11:27AM

exactly Kazi, the real surprise is that they ever agreed to be bought by MS at all

Mr Khan @ Oct 5th 2007 11:27AM

This is like saying HAL Labs went back to being independent, or Insomniac

I figured they had become a first-party developer to stay

Oh well, this just means Myth and/or Marathon are coming back (plus some other unprecedented goodies)

MasterInsan0 @ Oct 5th 2007 12:46PM

I would actually welcome a new Marathon game, since I didn't even know it existed until Halo came out. It's like I feel kind of bad for Bungie, since they've basically become defined by Halo.

PhydeWice @ Oct 6th 2007 12:56AM

I, for one, would love to see a new Pathways Into Darkness. It was the first Bungie game I played when I had my Mac, and this was before Marathon.

kinshadow @ Oct 5th 2007 11:27AM

Well, I, for one, welcome our new Bungie overlords.

pete @ Oct 5th 2007 11:56AM

Dude, it's two-thousand-and-fucking-seven.

kinshadow @ Oct 5th 2007 11:57AM

All your Bungies belong to us?

Blazur @ Oct 5th 2007 12:21PM

O RLY?

Kevlar @ Oct 5th 2007 12:26PM

Yeah, but does it run Bungie?

Quix @ Oct 5th 2007 12:56PM

Will Bungie blend?

Dale @ Oct 5th 2007 1:05PM

Bungie do what Nintendon't.

Jtenma @ Oct 5th 2007 1:36PM

Thread COMBO BREAKER11111!!!!!SHIFT

prateeko @ Oct 5th 2007 11:28AM

Seems about in line with rumors midway through this week. Clearly some folks at Bungie (the higher ups of course, ones who made enough money to care) wern't happy with the restriction of Halo as the only game for the better part of a decade. They probably had to buy back their name, but that leaves me wondering if Bungie is a 3rd party restricted to Microsoft as the publisher, a 2nd party, or what?

Either way, doesn't seem like too much will change with regards to an Xbob (and probably the PC) being the only places you can get Bungie games, which is probably what was most important to Microsoft...

Mr Khan @ Oct 5th 2007 11:37AM

It seems to me like they're going total 3rd party, but that Halo remains a Microsoft property, so if they want to make more Halo (which they would probably use as their fail-safe moneymaker), they would do so with Microsoft Game Studios

Of course, i could be wrong

prateeko @ Oct 5th 2007 11:41AM

Actually, I think it's second party. I think so because of this quote in Bungie's own press release: "Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest."

Minority equity interest could be akin to Nintendo and Rare back in the day, or like Sony and Square...who knows. Either way, it seems like Bungie coughed up cash, walked a little ways away, but will only be making games for the 360, which is what Microsoft (and Xbox fans) really cared about. I've got all current-gen systems so it doesn't matter, but it's good news for the kids who picked up a 360 just because of Halo 3.

Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 5th 2007 11:44AM

Sony only owns, like, 12% of Square-enix. Maybe even less. But your other examples are spot on.

2nd party it is.

prateeko @ Oct 5th 2007 11:52AM

My reference was to Sony and SQUARE (before they merged with Enix). At that time it was Sony's minority stake in Square that prevented them from publishing games on the GBA/GCN - remember the debacle it took to get Crystal Chronicles onto the Cube?

That relationship was, however, less strict than Nintendo and Rare, in which Nintendo had 49% stake in Rare (if I remember correctly).

Either way, I see this as a move from 1st to 2nd party - means more freedom and monies for Bungie and Microsoft doesn't see a mass exodus from the studio they bought. Works well, and probably was the most Bungie could afford to buy back.

J.Goodwin @ Oct 5th 2007 8:38PM

prateeko,

EXACTLY.

This is very similar to Nintendo's arrangement with Rare before they had their falling out.

Microsoft gets to own say, 49.99% of Bungie, may be able to get the lion's share of their net income because they're probably the general partner, doesn't have to detail anything that goes on inside of Bungie in their financial statements (not required to consolidate, minority interest, so they'll just report it as a single line item called "investment in Bungie, LLC"), and Bungie really is in charge of what they do, while Microsoft is protected from someone else buying Bungie out without their knowledge and consent.

This is really weird, but the break up is no where near as complete as people think, even though the autonomy is quite real.

Oreo @ Oct 5th 2007 11:29AM

It's very hot outside for this time of year so I think it's more hell on Earth than hell freezing.

This is bigger than Rare leaving Nintendo because, frankly Rare sucked at the time anyways.

FOXHOUND @ Oct 5th 2007 12:40PM

"At the time"? ...they haven't put anything out worth buying since JET FORCE GEMINI on N64. :\

J.Goodwin @ Oct 5th 2007 8:39PM

Damn, Jet Force Gemini was a FINE game.

Raikage (NDF - PK THUNDER RING) @ Oct 6th 2007 1:13AM

HMM that game is sitting about 5 feet in front of me in my 64...

TwEE @ Oct 5th 2007 11:29AM

Wow, didnt expect this rumor to be true.. craziness. Next thing you know Rare will be leaving Nintendo.

Donald @ Oct 5th 2007 11:34AM

I see what you did there

Lemmiwinks @ Oct 5th 2007 1:23PM

+2 Andross polygons for you

Raikage (NDF - PK THUNDER RING) @ Oct 6th 2007 1:15AM

DO A BARREL ROLL!!!

Sean @ Oct 5th 2007 11:29AM

Crazy.

Mack Swift @ Oct 5th 2007 11:31AM

Does this mean Vince Vaughn will be the Master Chief in the Halo movie???

Noshino @ Oct 5th 2007 11:39AM

I don't know, but NOW I do find the xbox sexy :D

d-pad @ Oct 5th 2007 2:21PM

Hopefully.

"Listen to me baby, there's going to be beautiful covenant babies on Halo. You're so fucking money and you don't even know it."

samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 5th 2007 11:32AM

Haha! Joystiq was wrong! Joystiq was wrong! Nyah nyah nyahnyah nyah NYAH!

Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 5th 2007 11:36AM

Not just joystiq, but the entire INTERNET.

which is for porn.

*has A.D.D.*

StrangeBum @ Oct 5th 2007 11:38AM

Or to put it like Cartman 'Ha ha ha ha ha haaa...now you are a chicken!'

StrangeBum @ Oct 5th 2007 11:40AM

And @ Crono

Haha..what a great song that is. 'Grab your stick and double click..for porn, porn, porn!'

Rususeruru @ Oct 5th 2007 11:50AM

you called it

Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 5th 2007 4:41PM

Ready Normal people!

Teh internet is for porn!

I have to say other than th eoriginal the guildwars version is one of the best

Thomas Alan @ Oct 5th 2007 11:34AM

I wonder what this means. They don't seem to be a prolific enough company to survive as a traditional 3rd party.

Mr Khan @ Oct 5th 2007 11:40AM

Not a 3rd-party publisher, no, but much like Grasshopper Manufacture, they could probably easily survive as a 3rd-party dev, especially since publishers will probably fight each other to publish their first independent game

Word Up, North Korea! @ Oct 5th 2007 11:54AM

Christ almighty, they were able to survive and thrive as a 3rd party MACINTOSH dev for years. When they originalyl began Halo they were a 3rd party dev...I'm sure they will be just fine

zachs @ Oct 5th 2007 11:35AM

Its a Trap!

Well if you think about it is a possibility that they have just become a subsidiary company that Microsoft owns. So all the hot loot's they are going to be making are just going to be kicked back to papa 'Soft.

But it is going to be sweet to see how broad their spectrum is outside of the Chief.

Flying Spaghetti Monster @ Oct 5th 2007 11:36AM

I wonder what they will be able to cook up for the PS3. And will it be a shooter or will they take a chance and develop a new IP along a different genre.

And no I do not care if Halo makes it's way to the PS3. Besides, I believe Microsoft still owns the game's rights.