IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Interview: Bungie on Halo's Evolution and 'Going Out With a Bang'

Posted March 24, 2010 by James Brightman

IG: In terms of the technology that is out there now, you see Sony just this week named their motion controller. They had a whole event to show off the applications for it and Microsoft has been pushing Natal ever since E3. Do you have an opinion about either or both of those from a developer's standpoint for the experiences you can create? 

BJ: Yeah, I know it's something that we talk a lot about internally, and in the case of Natal for example, it is something that we've already stated that it's just not for Reach, which is designed for the original controller. Historically, at least for the last decade, the games that we've made I don't think lend themselves to those types of input devices. But as a designer at Bungie, it's very exciting to see where this stuff is heading and what the uptake will be on it, will people really adopt this, will this be the future. And we just have a lot of creative people who are always interested to see how they might be able to tap into something like that down the road, but again, it would always stem from this core idea of we have something that we want to make that isn't currently available on the market that's super appealing to us; if, when and how it might take advantage of the new technology, we'd have to wait and see but we'd never go, 'oh well 3D is the next big thing, we need to make a 3D game.' That's not our philosophy for how we approach game development.

The Halo Reach team in action

IG: Between the two, Natal is hands-free, no controller in your hands, while PlayStation Move is very Wii-like since you have the wand and you have the sub-controller and the experience is very similar... do you think one lends itself to more creativity over the other? Do you have any opinion on the differences between the two?

BJ: Honestly, I think it'd be premature for me to personally try to speculate on which input device is superior. I think for both of them, it's just going to come down to software and I think both on paper are interesting devices and technology, but I think it's going to live or die by the games. That's what we're going to be interested to see – what developers can actually do with this technology to actually make a unique, original experience. So as gamers, we're all going to be here to see this holiday, what each person will bring to the table and I think they're going to live and die by software.

IG: You guys are known for your AAA blockbuster experiences, but some of the key discussion points throughout this week at GDC have focused on social gaming and Facebook and iPhone and these emerging platforms that are just exploding in terms of development. Is there any interest in Bungie actually working with those things are do you just want to stick to “blockbuster” console, PC products?

BJ: Even more so than just the platforms, the specific community is always super important to our studio, and every game we've ever made, one of the major pillars is social interactions with our community. For us, it's a super exciting time right now because there's more ways than ever to touch and engage players and fans and it's definitely something we're thinking about going forward and how do we leverage different types of technologies and different outlets to create a bigger community and a richer, more sustainable game environment; so these are definitely interesting discussions that we're having right now and all the time. I mean, we're not currently working on a Facebook game for example, but just in terms of what it means for a community and our ability to make an even bigger community with even more meaningful interactions, it's definitely stuff that we're talking a lot about for the future.

IG: Another one of the big buzz words out there is cloud computing and the streaming of games with services like Gaikai and OnLive. What is your thinking about those kinds of services and the impact they'll have on the future of this industry?

BJ: I may not be the right person to ask about that. I'm sure some of our lead engineers would have a lot more interesting insights on it. As a consumer, I think the promise of that as a service in the future of the industry is pretty interesting to me; the idea of having this on demand game service that has real titles definitely saves me a trip to the store. Personally, it's hard for me not to be just a little bit skeptical for right now - I don't know if the market and the industry is really quite ready for that. I'm not personally familiar with how far along the tech really is these days but... as a gamer, having a catalog of titles and not being constrained by having to have a leading edge PC that I have to keep upgrading every few months, I think fundamentally the concept is super exciting as a gamer, just to make more content available to me faster and easier. And as a developer being able to get your content out there and breaking down some of those barriers could also be pretty interesting as well.

IG: In terms of the creative inspiration for Bungie, what are you looking at these days – movies, books, whatever? Where do you draw a lot of your inspiration from?

BJ: That's the awesome thing about having a studio as diverse as Bungie – we literally have people like Jason that have been there for over 15 years and the core of our team have all been there since the beginning. So having their life experiences and the history of making our titles, plus, just so much new blood that we continue to hire... leads to a really diverse array of interests, from books and movies to television and comics to other people's games as well. So it's hard for me to pinpoint one specific thing, but clearly based on our last decade we have a lot of sci-fi fans in the studio, even looking at Marathon before that. I think there are also interesting things going on right now in the real world with regards to advances being made in space exploration and... it's just a really interesting time to be a sci-fi tech nerd and our studio's definitely riding that wave and enjoying that immensely.

IG: In terms of the genres in the industry right now, you guys have focused on the first-person genre, but from a creative standpoint, you've seen a lot of the same genres over and over again and, if the video game medium is to see even more growth into popular culture, we would probably need to see more things like comedies and romances and maybe these other genres that have not really been tapped much from a gaming standpoint. Do you have any viewpoint in expansion into other genres? 

BJ: I think it could be really interesting to see, like, using comedy for example, and there have been games in the past that have had comedic elements to the storyline, but it hasn't inherently been a comedy... I guess thus far the medium lends itself more to visceral action experiences because you can immediately get that response from the button that you press. I haven't personally played Heavy Rain, but it sounds like it's one of the first games to really take a big leap and try and really focus first and foremost on this emotional connection in storytelling above all else, and I'd be curious to see how gamers react to that. And really I think it will just boil down to what people come up with compelling ideas and what publishers are willing to take a risk on it, because I think the industry does stick to what it knows; making games is expensive and it's risky and I don't know if somebody wants to make the 'dromedy' game and take that kind of gamble.

So I would hope to see somebody do it; seeing some of the indie game festival stuff is one of the coolest parts about the show and there's a lot of awesome talent out there and those people are really on the cutting edge of taking big risks and I'm sure somebody will find a way to do something really cool and interesting. I agree with you, though; to really continue to grow and broaden it's going to have to be more than just twitch based gaming and hardcore puzzlers and platforming games. But our studio is going to continue to make games that we think are super fun and awesome and tap into our core competencies and are games that we want to play, and hopefully that will align with what the marketplace wants by the time we're ready to release it.

IG: Thanks very much Brian. Can't wait to see what Bungie is going to do next.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.