Bungie finds balance between new IPs and Halo

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Nov 8th 2007 at 8:30PM }

In an interview with Develop, Bungie studio manager Harold Ryan elaborates on what's in store for the Halo developer after it the left the Microsoft fold. The answer being moar Haloz shouldn't elicit a gasp from anyone, but the studio's return to independence now allows it to find a better balance between the guaranteed moneymaker and new intellectual properties. "During the development of Halo and Halo 2, we had other, non-Halo IPs in development and we killed those projects both times," said Ryan. "Both teams were swallowed whole by the Halo team. With Halo 3, that was the first time we know that we couldn't let that happen – it's not an acceptable way out to add 20 people to the project by killing that prototype."

With the prototype having survived and creativity culling quelled, Bungie is now "actively engaged" in exploring worlds of a different kind and quite possibly, a different shape (look for Cubee in 2009). That isn't to say everybody's sick of Master Chief, of course: "We shipped Halo with 45 people and now we're 115, so two thirds of the studio have only shipped one or two games in the Halo series. For the most part they came here because they were really excited to work at Bungie and in the Halo universe. So from that point of view we don't have a shortage of people happy to make Halo games." It's just as well, since we're fairly sure there's no shortage of people happy to play them either.

Tags: Bungie, Halo, Halo3, Marathon

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

DangerMouse @ Nov 8th 2007 8:58PM

The Master Chief is a slutty, slutty whore.

ThornedVenom @ Nov 8th 2007 9:01PM

I'll just add in to this overdominant male attitude on the internet.

=> "If the 360 really looked like that, I'd buy her instantly. And not the cwhore version."

gonk @ Nov 8th 2007 9:20PM

that 360 has some nice tits

ColossalHat @ Nov 9th 2007 12:00AM

Careful, you might wake up with a red ring of death next to you in the morning. Try explaining that one to the cops.

dan stabbingworth @ Nov 8th 2007 11:14PM

Halo 3 looks nice, but Halo 2 compared to Halo 1 was a huge upgrade. I think it would be nice to see what they could do for a 4th Halo.

Something with a one-off storyline, i.e., no cliffhanger!

robert @ Nov 8th 2007 11:17PM

back to the point... i'm really interested in seeing what bungie can do now that they're not the "halo company". oni was cool, marathon and halo were both the most interesting fps games for their time and myth was a incredible puzzler. i may have missed a game or two but truthfully, if you say bungie to a gamer pretty much everyone thinks of halo. it'll be nice if they can create a few more innovative games or expand on current genres with their company instead of just cashing in on the halo name every few years.