RSSMicrosoft Confirms Split From Bungie
By Ed Oswald | Published October 5, 2007, 11:55 AM
In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft confirmed Friday that it had indeed severed ties with Bungie, the creators of its popular Halo franchise.
The split is shocking due to the fact that Bungie and Microsoft had just finished the most successful entertainment launch with Halo 3, netting some $300 million in the first week of sales.
Microsoft will retain an equity interest in the company, however Bungie will be independent from Microsoft. Bungie will still produce games for Microsoft, but it is unclear whether or not that would now be on an exclusive basis.
Friday's admission also confirms reports by blogger Jacob Metcalf, who first broke the story on Monday. Most of his facts were indeed correct: Microsoft will retain rights to Halo; the split was effective October 1; and the company still will have some control over Bungie's operations.
"While we are supporting Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our 'Halo' entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the 'Halo' universe," Microsoft Game Studios chief Shane Kim said.
Other aspects of the split were not publicly disclosed, and its not immediately clear if and when Bungie plans to produce games for other consoles. However, it is clear Microsoft is moving to protect its own interests.
By staking its claim to the Halo franchise, the company is essentially making sure the game does not end up appearing on any other console without its consent. Right now, the title is one of the biggest draws to its Xbox 360 console.
In any case, this was likely a very high-level decision. Sources told BetaNews earlier this week that the first time the Xbox team itself heard of the possible split was through the media. No internal announcement was apparently made either.
But to some within Microsoft the news didn't come as too much of a shock.
"To be honest the relationship always seemed like an odd match culturally," group product manager Sean Alexander wrote. "If nothing else, this should ensure Bungie retains their uniqueness and enable them to continue to push the edge with new content while the Halo universe evolves simultaneously."
Maybe this means they'll release Marathon 4 for OS X!
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|"To be honest the relationship always seemed like an odd match culturally"
What did you expect, Sean? Bungie were a merry bunch of Mac addicts.
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|Many do not know, but Halo was originally to be a game for the Mac platform as well :)
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|Really? I don't even know Mac has games except WOW.
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|Well--I can completely understand that at least for right now the worst thing for Microsoft would be if Bungie releases Halo 3 in a PS3 version :D
It wouldn't matter much still, I guess, $300 million in damage has already been done--plus all those xbox360 consoles sold to people that just waited on halo 3.
I DO hope that they will eventually make Halo 3 a PC game like the others--not right away, but in two years or so (sadley just in time for them to make it a Windows "Vienna" exclusive game, hahaha).
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|as a microsoft IP, that would be a pipe dream for PS3/wii owners at best. most likely, only future games independent of MS input would be cross console.
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|"moving to protect it's own interests."
its, people, its!!
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|It possesses it's own intrests. :)
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|it's "its"
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|that pretty much works for every other word in the English language except for 'it'. it's = it is = it has, etc.
its = possessive form
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|Gah. Why do they have to do that? They take a frakking rule and then totally screw it with another useless, meaningless, confounding exception.
....jerks.
(looked it up, yeah, you're right. Damn the intarwebs.)
There are a few other words like it, though the only one I've seen issues with is "whose":
yours, his, hers, ours, its, theirs, and whose are all possessive forms that do not follow the general rule.
Well, there's our English lesson for the day...
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|Don't forget "your" and "you're", those are the ones that piss me off the most when people use them interchangeably. Second would be "they're", "their", and "there". Yes, people confuse "there" with the other two because they sound the same phonetically.
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|yous, youse, y'all's...
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|such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the 'Halo' universe,
Oh crap. What's next, Halo the Movie?
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|Tool, you're really surprised? ;-)
Now, if Peter Jackson could come up with an original thought for a movie and not just another remake of something else, then I would be surprised...
~dnc
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|If you look on hsx.com they do have a halo movie on there, weather it'll come out or not I'm not 100% sure, but I'm guessing it will. If it did it would be one of the biggest selling video game movies I'm willing to bet.
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|There is no original thought. It has either been done before (infinite monkeys), or it has been conceived by God (trite religion).
Surprise is merely one's ability to ignore past experience.
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|The movie has been canceled. Peter Jackson's replacement said so.
It might still be resurrected some day, but since the Halo franchise is on its way out, probably not.
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|Thank God for small favors...
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|So, they still will be making games for MS and Halo is still a MS property, I don't really see the issue here...
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|No issue at all. MS will continue to have a stake in the company - so why not develop games for other consoles? Just means more money for MS.
At the same time, perhaps this means Halo will appear on Playstation? Or even Wii? Granted after a long-delay to bolster sales for the Xbox division.
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|i don't think anyone said there was an issue.. it's just news
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|like you'll ever see mario on a platform other than nintendo's (legitimately)? i doubt ms is ever gonna let it be released for any platform that isn't their own.
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|Exactly, as it says:
Microsoft will retain rights to Halo
As a MS property, they're not going to give up their signature games... Bungie may create something that has very similar gameplay to Halo for other consoles, but the Halo creation itself will likely remain an MS platform exclusive for as long as they continue to make them.
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|"At the same time, perhaps this means Halo will appear on Playstation?"
No, Microsoft owns Halo. But Bungie can make a knock-off for the PS3.
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|Hey you never know. I don't necessarily mean any time soon (probably shouldn't have used the Wii name - my bad). But one day...
http://ds.ign.com/objects/874/874110.html - almost happened once.
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|I now maybe they'll bring out Halo 1 and 2 (with revamped graphics) for the PS3 and maybe 2-3 years from now bring out 3. 3 years after bringing out a Halo game for the xbox should be fine. At that time the games for the Xbox get cheaper so they can charge full price for it on the PS3 and make even more money.
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|I saw that. Has Microsoft always owned the rights to Halo? That I am not sure of. If not, this probably came before they got the exclusive rights hehe :)
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|No issue, but it creates some dreams for some ps3 owners :)
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|Well, there always is the predicessor to Halo, by Bungie.. one of the pinacles of FPS type games... They just need to remake Marathon for everything else... :)
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