Games

[Lautakwah]

http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Bungie+Studios+Departing+From+Microsoft/article9139.htm

wow seems like it happened.  looks like halo is now officially dead if its going to be headed my msofts internal gaming dept. 

[oskibear]

Bungie started as a Mac game company.   I was surprised when they went to the MS camp and now I'm surprised to took them so long to get out.   I guess MS cut them too hard a deal.

[wizll]

still unconfirmed but even if they do, I'd say that's a good break. bungie will more than likely just continue to develop for the 360 since they know the technology and have made a significant amount of integration between their website and xbox live. Enough that I can see that they are innovating in making multiplayer gaming a lot more web 2.0'ish than anything else out there with easy to use tools. that would be a plus for ms. and without ms guiding their every step, they'll now have more freedom to do what they want, perhaps create a brand new IP they've had in mind for a while now.

[Lautakwah]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6180462.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

guess its true.  woot maybe we'll finally see another myth. 

[Jebus]

from firingsquad:

FiringSquad just got off the phone with Bungie's long time community spokesperson Frank O'Connor who chatted with us briefly about the game developer's newly announced break away from its parent company Microsoft to once again become an independent game developer. O'Connor told us that negotiations with Microsoft on this move began a year ago and that the developer is 100 percent owned by Bungie, although O'Connor did say that Bungie has retained unnamed "experts" to help in the transition to the new independent version. So why break away from Microsoft which has helped Bungie become one of the most well known game developers in the world. O'Connor told us that this new arrangement will in part help Bungie to make decisions on their own without having to wait for the parent company to approve them. For example under the old way Bungie would have to work with contractors that would be approved by Microsoft. Under the independent Bungie, the company can now work faster to hire contractors and make other decisions that perhaps might take longer under Microsoft.

Some people have speculated that the move to a new independent Bungie was because the developer was tired of working on the Halo franchise, the first person shooter series of games that has generated millions of copies in sales. O'Connor told us, however, that such claims are "exaggerated" and said they still have a fondness for the Halo franchise and might return to the Halo universe one day (of course two other upcoming Halo games, the RTS title Halo Wars and the unnamed Peter Jackson lead Halo game, are being directly handled by other developers). O'Connor did say that for the foreseeable future future games made at Bungie will continue to be made for the Xbox 360 console; they have no plans to even return to making games for the PC or Macintosh platforms.

O'Connor told us that currently Bungie has about 120 employees and will still be based in their Kirkland, Washington offices (Bungie was originally based in Chicago before being bought by Microsoft in 2000). Harold Ryan, who has been the studio manager at Bungie for some time, is now the new President of the now independent studio. They are also hiring for new team members but O'Connor would not comment on how many more people Bungie is looking to add to the team in the coming months. As far as specifics about their future plans, at the moment O'Connor said that they are concentrating on making downloadable content for the just released Halo 3 but that they have a "skunk works" department that is in charge of developing new ideas for games. It should be interesting to see how being out of Microsoft's direct control will change Bungie and how it will allow the studio to have more freedom to create non-Halo themed games.

[wizll]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/bungie-owns-bungie-the-qa-307656.php

Kotaku: Looking from the outside this move looks like something that purely benefits Bungie, how were you able to convince Microsoft to "unleash" the studio?

Brian Jarrard: To be honest, this new relationship is mutually beneficial to both Microsoft and Bungie. On one hand, we get to return to our roots and explore some creative freedoms and possibilities that we may not have otherwise been able to. Meanwhile we continue to have the support of the best publisher in the industry on some really exciting projects like our Halo collaboration with Peter Jackson. On the Microsoft side, they get the benefit of an energized and inspired Bungie team, committed to making great games for their platforms, and a continuation of our strong partnership together. It's a win-win situation.

haha sounded like what I said to some degree!

[Sosage]

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wizll wrote:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/bungie-owns-bungie-the-qa-307656.php

Kotaku: Looking from the outside this move looks like something that purely benefits Bungie, how were you able to convince Microsoft to "unleash" the studio?

Brian Jarrard: To be honest, this new relationship is mutually beneficial to both Microsoft and Bungie. On one hand, we get to return to our roots and explore some creative freedoms and possibilities that we may not have otherwise been able to. Meanwhile we continue to have the support of the best publisher in the industry on some really exciting projects like our Halo collaboration with Peter Jackson. On the Microsoft side, they get the benefit of an energized and inspired Bungie team, committed to making great games for their platforms, and a continuation of our strong partnership together. It's a win-win situation.

haha sounded like what I said to some degree!

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Yeah! You can't just keep juicing the same shit out of creative people, and I am sure Bungie is fucking sick of doing Halo games (I would be).

I was also surprised when Bungie originally became a MS studio. That was from way out of left field when it happened. It makes sense now, seeing as they were ground breakers for third person action titles and were talented enough to support "other" platforms (E3 97-ish, EVERYONE saw the early Oni demo and copied that shit...which added to the thing bombing when they released it so damn late...plus I remember discussions about supporting Linux ports aside from Mac games, which they eventually ran with to a small degree!).

Where am I going with this? Yay Bungie!

[wtghaha]

ms probably just let them go. ms has the halo name and bungie hasn't made any other notable games besides that as far as i know. the last game i remember is myth and making sequels for fps games is the opposite of innovation.  they've milked that studio dry. If they really wanted an "energized and inspired" team they could have just pumped more money into them from all the revenue they're getting from halo.