Bungie has repeatedly stated that Halo: Reach would very likely be the last Halo game the studio develops for Microsoft for the foreseeable future. Some fans might hold out some hope that the developer would one day return to the beloved franchise after a break from it, but with today's mega 10-year agreement with Activision those hopes are completely dashed.
IndustryGamers spoke on the phone with Bungie's Brian Jarrard and Joseph Staten all about the deal's implications, and they made it quite clear, that they're finished with Halo in order to focus the entire company for the next 10 years on their new action IP. We asked Jarrard, "This Activision deal involves just one IP from Bungie, so if you really wanted to you could conceivably still create another Halo with Microsoft right? Or does this deal impact that?"
He quickly shot down the idea, responding, "I can tell you that we don't have any plans to do that. You're right that this publishing partnership pertains just to this specific new IP of ours... but in order to realize our vision and these crazy ambitious plans that we have, it's going to take our entire studio and all of our best people working on it. So I think we'd be really hard pressed to find a world where Bungie has multiple teams making multiple disparate projects. I think we've learned through our own trial and error that that's not what Bungie does best. We're at our best when we're unified, focused on a single goal."
Jarrard added, "We kind of knew that Reach was always going to be our last Halo game; immediately after Reach is done, the bulk of our team will roll right into production on our next big universe. At that point, Microsoft and their team will carry the torch and take Halo wherever they decide to take it."
So in that sense, this is a somewhat sad day for Halo fans. We have no doubt that Reach will be incredible, but after that who knows how Microsoft's future direction will treat the valuable IP.
5 Comments
April 29, 2010
Why the hell would they sign with Activision after all the shit they've done to Infinity Ward? We may be witnessing the beginning of the end to Bungie.
April 29, 2010
Because quite simply ATVI has a boatload of cash to support Bungie's new game franchise, bring it multiplatform while letting Bungie keep their independence and all rights to the IP.
April 29, 2010
Frankly, Bobby needed to find another thoroughbred to replace the one they shot. And since Bungie and Bobby's people have been working on this deal for 9 months its pretty apparent that Bobby knew that IW was going to need to be shuttered. West/Zampella also likely knew about this deal happening, saw the huge $ that ATVI was going to bring to Bungie, saw that Bungie would get to keep their IP and independence, and decided they wanted that red carpet treatment too (quite deservedly). By then Bobby knew there was no saving IW from the coming fight over $, independence, and control of IP, so it was time to lead his thoroughbred out to pasture and shoot it. Its too bad that Bobby doesnt know how to do this in a manner that doesnt cause the dev community to think he is Darth Vader though. He shouldve just paid IW what they were owed for the incredible work they did for him and then parted ways once their contract expired.
April 30, 2010
Those idiots West and Zampella got what they deserved. They were fired for good reason, and ow they are bitching. I hope that they lose the lawsuit AND are forced to pay Activision Blizzard the legal fees.
April 30, 2010
Hello Timonthy, care to add something to the conversation?