Bungie ink deal with Activision
In a move that can only be described as ironic, prolific former Mac-exclusive, then Xbox-exclusive developers, who for a time were owned by Microsoft, have signed an epic 10 year publishing deal with none other then Activision. Yes, the same Activision that developers of Call of Duty are desperately trying to jump ship away from. Keep in mind this deal states that Activision has rights to publish games by Bungie, but Bungie remain a third party, independent developer.
“Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property.”
“Today, we’re poised to open a new chapter in Bungie’s history-one that begins with a partnership between Bungie and Activision and ends where we always knew it would, with World Domination,” stated the Bungie official blog . “Our Next Big Thing now has a concrete path, leading from our studio to the platforms of our choosing. The business formalities are behind us. Our Constitution remains unchanged. We are still Bungie, still independent, and now we are free to bring our stories to an ever bigger audience. We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise. From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.”
Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard said, “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”
This confirms that, for the first time, Bungie will release multi-platform games. No word on what the first franchise will be, but we do know it’ll release across all platforms. There’s even talk of the Wii.
It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Huge deals like this are not uncommon, and Bungie developers have let slip in the past that they would like to work on platforms other then the 360, just to see what they can achieve elsewhere. The most interesting part is creating an alliance with a publisher who so blatantly mistreated its own employees at Infinity Ward (a developer who is fully owned by Activision, rather then a third party with a deal).
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