“In what may be nearly unbelievable news, word is circulating around the web that Bungie Studios’ days under Microsoft may be over. The initial news first started from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, an outlet known for its Microsoft-related information, and has since grown legs as other media have followed up on the story,” Marcus Yam reports for Daily Tech.
“According to an email received by the Post-Intelligencer, Microsoft has released Bungie Studios from its ownership. The deal is apparently done, but Microsoft wishes to hold the public announcement until after October 6 for the protection of quarterly financial results,” Yam reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Microsoft’s first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2008 will be released on October 25, 2007. [Thanks, Fabio of setteB.IT]
Full article here.
An excerpt from the email via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn’t like how MS is constantly trying to “handle” everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingy they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They’ll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however they are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “RadDoc” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Bungie Studios concentrated primarily on Macintosh games during its first nine years of existence. Halo’s public unveiling took place to thunderous applause during the Macworld Expo NYC July 21, 1999 keynote address by Apple’s then-interim-CEO Steve Jobs – we were there. On June 19, 2000, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie Software. As a result, the Mac and PC versions were delayed, and the game was re-purposed for Microsoft’s Xbox, driving sales of Microsoft’s trouble-prone game consoles. Mac and Windows versions of Halo were eventually released two years later.
Waiter !!
Please send an order of Ritalin over to ChrissyOne’s table. Put it on my tab.
Just read a huge book on how to put your Budgie down and evidently you can hit them with the book or shoot them dead, just above the beak.
No, please, let Apple be a serious company, and not a gaming company as Mwfrrrlostof
How sure are we that this story is legit? How does a company that is owned by another company just up and leave? That’s one of the more unique forms of ‘ownership’ that I’ve ever heard of.
I gotta admit, my knowledge-base regarding this whole ‘MS-buying-Budgie’ thing was pretty limited from the start. I just didn’t care that much. But this development, if true, seems very interesting. Anyone able to fill in the blanks?
This dopey rumor has Sony fanboy written all over it.
-L
@ChrissyOne:
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever read your posts written with such passion.
It really kinda Hot
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“Well screw you, Budgie. You danced with the devil, and found out, oh gee, wow, he’s kinda evil.”
LOL!
Thank you ChrissyOne – your “I Told You So” letter to “Budgie” just made my day! 😀
Excellent news for us Mac owners and the games industry!
Expect a version of Halo 3 for the Mac soon!…
No thanks. I remember that key note, I remember those quotes from Bungie. I was so excited to get that game on my Mac after buying all the Marathon games. But they sold out on the Mac community. Took the money and made Steve Jobs look like an idiot to boot. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not spending a dime on Bungie.
Here’s a little blast from the past… fun stuff in there!
—————————————————————————
Microsoft/Bungie Interview
Ed Fries of Microsoft and Alex Seropian of Bungie talk about the details of the Bungie purchase.
by IGN Staff
June 19, 2000 – We had a chance to talk with Alex Seropian, one of the founders of Bungie, and Ed Fries, VP of Microsoft Games publishing concerning the details of Microsoft’s purchase of Bungie that was announced today. And the answers? A lot of packing boxes, no walls, and scary bubbles.
IGN Xbox: So you’re making the big move to Redmond, huh?
Alex Seropian: It’s going to work out great, assuming house prices don’t go up significantly. One of the things that we’re most excited about is that we’re going to be working with the people behind the making of the Xbox. Hopefully we’re going to help them out with some of the stuff they’re doing, and they’re going to help us out with some of the stuff we’re doing too.
One of the side effects of this is that we have an office in San Jose, and when they’re done with Oni they’re going to come to Redmond, and that’s going to be sort of this great unification we’ve been dying for, where all of the teams are going to be in the same place.
IGN Xbox: Other than Oni and Myth, which are being published by Take 2, future franchises will be published by Microsoft, correct?
AS: Right.
IGN Xbox: How is the transition going to effect the development of Halo? Are you expecting any delays as you move offices?
We’re probably going to lose a little bit of time moving out there, but our guys are really focused. They really love what they’re doing. Hopefully we won’t lose more than a couple of weeks.
IGN Xbox: So what’s going to happen to the Bungie lifestyle in the move?
Right. Smoking jackets and stuff…
I’ve been thinking about that a lot. It’s something that it’s very difficult to put your finger on. There are some obvious manifestations of it, such as how we work in an open environment, while Microsoft works in offices. But we’re going to build our space out to match the way that we currently work. And I think that that’s something unique for Microsoft.
Ed Fries: This is really a new thing. We’re going to try and keep the Bungie guys together, and keep it branded, and really keep it as a studio within my [Microsoft Games] group. It’s really more the direction I want to go, with a collection of studios, rather than one big group.
AS: I know that here at Bungie with the three teams, that’s there’s a lot of friendly competition. It’s motivating. And I think if we can provide some of that — if we can take the FASA guys out, and play paintball with them, and wipe them on the field, and inspire them…
EF: You’re all talk.
IGN Xbox: From Microsoft’s point of view, this is definitely not the first or last company to become a studio under Microsoft’s new games group.
EF: We’ve grown from around 100 people to about 500 people in the last four years, and so we’ve become one big group separated by genre. And when we acquired Access [makers of the Links series], we kept them in Salt Lake City, so they’re basically a studio now. So I’m just thinking more about instead of breaking it down by genre, having the group arranged by personality, by groups of teams that have a focus, and that create games that bring out that energy.
It’s a really exciting time here, and the Xbox project has got everyone pumped. We’re out trying to team up with the best developers in the world, and everyone wants to work on Xbox projects. It’s just a great time.
IGN Xbox: Gotta ask the question. Halo Xbox?
AS: I don’t think we’re announcing anything today, but obviously part of why this is happening is to get Bungie close to Xbox. But it definitely our hope to be the premiere developer for Xbox.
<continued…>
<continued…>
IGN Xbox: What effects will the purchase have on Bungie.net?
I’m guessing we’re going to have a lot more bandwidth [laugh]… and we’re going to grow that. We’ve got some projects we’re working on that will be pretty cool on Bungie.net.
IGN Xbox: Let’s talk about the acquisition process. What was behind the decision to bring Bungie into the company, instead of just publishing their titles in the future under the Microsoft franchise?
EF: That’s a complicated question about why that works best some times. In this case, Bungie has three incredibly talented development teams. They’ve got Jason Jones, whose one of the top technical people in the business, and the opportunity to take them and put them very close to the development for Xbox, so that the Xbox team can benefit from working very closely with them, and likewise we can get the benefit from building the console and the games at the same time. It’s that whole opportunity. We’re going to be announcing over the next month all sorts of publishing deals we’re doing with people. But that’s not really the same as having a group that’s right here, that’s working every day across the hall from the people building the Xbox.
IGN Xbox: What about the Mac focus of Bungie? Is that going to change at all?
AS: We haven’t really thought about that much yet. We care about the Macintosh, and we care about PC gaming, we just have some big decisions to make there. We need to spend some time together and look at what our options are, and what we can do. We’re just not ready to talk about it yet.
IGN Xbox: What about the management structure, how much control will Bungie still have over what gets worked on in terms of projects, and what doesn’t?
AS: I imagine it’s going to be something similar to how we do it now, which is that we come up with a design treatment for something, and we look at it and evaluate it to where it’s going to be something that’s going to be a good game, and whether it makes business sense. I can tell that those are the criteria that Microsoft uses, and so I think we’re pretty in sync with how we do stuff.
EF: The biggest thing that I try to do is make sure that people aren’t running into each other, that different groups aren’t trying to build the same game. Rather than try to tell them what I think they should do, they’re here because they’re the best at what they do. I just want to give them the resources to do what they do best, which is make great games.
IGN Xbox: What’s your personal take on the Xbox, Alex?
AS: With the Xbox, we’ve got an opportunity to get into the console market, and get into the living room on a platform that we’re fairly familiar with already. And it’s a platform that’s relatively easy to develop for, which is not the case with all the other platforms, especially the PlayStation 2. And from Jason’s perspective, he doesn’t stop talking about how excited he is, about the people that are working on it, that they’re doing the right thing. And I know that when we’re both really excited, that’s when the best work happens.
IGN Xbox: You’re currently working on Halo and Oni — what’s the third team working on?
AS: I can give you a little bit of a scoop… perhaps you’ve heard of a product called Bubblets…
IGN Xbox: If there’s one game that I think people are looking forward to from the Bungie team with the Halo engine, it’s Bubblets.
EF: Now that Microsoft’s involved, it’s Bubblets all the way.
— Vincent Lopez
@ halo on PS3
I just wanna say, Hell Yeah!! Lets see it get released there and all those suckers who bought the Halo edition XBox 360 start crying.
There are article online already refuting this.
If true it maybe interesting. If they start developing for Macs again it maybe another driver for sales of Macs. That’s a good thing
Only good news for the Mac if Apple wakes up:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/02/interview_no_evidence_apple_understands_gaming.html
I loved Marathon, and have all the games and the Marathon Forge program. I hope they dump the XBox and go back to Mac and PC Games.
Halo 3 is a big disappointment.
6 hour single player “campaign” that a 3 year old could beat on the hard setting.
The big answer to the story line is kill off all the major characters?
Wow, how creative.
Do yourselves a favor-just stick with the original Halo-it’s mucch better than the latest crap.
In order for any game developer to really commit to the Mac, Apple is going to have to commit to game developers. Apple hasn’t done that and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
I could also see Steve Jobs being pissed that Bungie sold to Apple when Apple was heavily promoting Halo at Macworld events. And we know Steve can hold a grudge.
Perhaps Apple should buy Bungie now….
I LOVED Marathon 1-3!
I hope Budgie dies out without any resources, you cheated on us bigtime !!!
And now that Apple have loads of money you think you can come back, i hope steve jobs remembers the old promises…
Hard o feel remorse for Bungie. They have wallets of cash now and a name that they can trade on, Don’t see MS letting them keep much of it though.
As a Mac owner since 1987, and a huge fan of the XBOX 360/XBOX Live, this is a disappointment.
Sorry guys… HALO on XBOX LIVE blows away any iteration you could ever have on the Mac in terms of online gaming.
HALO 3 is a triumph, but without the online portion via XBOX Live, it would be a disappointingly SHORT single player game with little relay value. With XBOX Live added to the mix, the game will be as popular online four years from now as it is right now.
Just look at where HALO2 has placed on the MOST PLAYED list since it was released, and that is an XBOX 1 game!
“nekogami13
Halo 3 is a big disappointment.
6 hour single player “campaign” that a 3 year old could beat on the hard setting.”
Oh please! — A 3 year old can beat the game on Legendary in six hours? LOL!
Talk about BS! — I have beat Halo 1 on Legendary 7 times and Halo 3 on Heroic (One below hardest) is taking me a long time to get through. Six hours? lol!
Why don’t you go out and actually buy a 360 and HALO 3 and then show us some proof that YOU can beat the game on Legendary in 6 hours, leave alone a 3 year old. Your name would be all over the internet since there is no one on the planet who has been able to do that.
Now that is a rumor that would be awesome to spread:
Apple Buys Bungie Studios
Halo 3 on the iPhone!
Apple Live
Oh – the possibilities
“@ halo on PS3
I just wanna say, Hell Yeah!! Lets see it get released there and all those suckers who bought the Halo edition XBox 360 start crying.”
Why would anyone want to play HALO 3 on the PS3?
Nothing remotely close to XBOX LIVE, NO RUMBLE on the controller, and more expensive to purchase.
Only a moronic Sony fanboy would dumb enough to think the PS3 is even close to the same value as the 360.