8BitJoystick aka Jake Metcalf, who first broke the news of the Bungie-Microsoft split a week ago, thinks he knows why Microsoft let go of Bungie:
"By letting them go Microsoft prevented a mass exodus of employees from Bungie. I think this was all about employee retention and preventing a brain drain. This move is is about creating promotion opportunities to grow for people that have been working away on Halo for the past decade. By having the top of Bungie be a Bungie employee it will allow people there to have room to move up the ladder and get better positions as they grow. By giving Bungie some distance Microsoft kept the company together and ultimately I think that is the best for Microsoft and everyone else..."
"Bungie LCC is still going to have a very very close relationship with Microsoft..."
8BitJoystick then speculates on what could be coming next from Bungie: Halo 3 download packs, Halo spin-offs, Halo 4, Pimp at Sea, Pathways into Darkness, and four other possibilities for future Bungie games. He also briefly mentions Microsoft's so-called "publishing rights of refusal," which allows Microsoft to veto any Bungie's new game on another system like the PS3.
Not every Halo game has been a banger, but the franchise still has a raft of the greatest games of all time.
Infinite is a dumpster fire and as much as I like ODST, in no universe it ranks above Halo 2. This list is trash.
Best to worst: Halo 3, Halo 2, Halo Reach, Halo CE, Halo 4, Halo ODST, Halo Infinite, Halo 5.
The Xbox 360 was a fantastic console in its day with some truly classic titles, but what are the seven best games for the console?
I'll go with,
Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Culdcept Saga, Shadow Complex, Ace Combat 6 with the flight stick,A Kingdom for Keflings, A World of Keflings.
Bonus Kinect Games: Happy Action Theater and Sesame Street.
*Skyrim was so bad on PS3 that it almost deserves to be #1*
Ah yes, Shadow Complex! Good indies back in the day. Summer of Arcade. I enjoyed Trials Evolution as well.
Was this made by a.i.? No human being would put Shadowrun, Fable III, and Splinter Cell: Conviction into a list of the 7 best Xbox 360 games.
Would love to play Ace Combat6 on PlayStation, but Xbox decided to buy exclusivity and keep it off a competing platform.
The only mainline game I never played except for one level at a friends place. Game sold less than any other in the series if I remember correctly.
360 had Namco hitters AC6 and RR6... both quality titles. You should at least bust out the 360 for AC6 if you can score the flight stick. Its great.
When the current gen XBOX offering is so lacking people need to refer to games released two generations back....
It's a nostalgia peice same reason we get thousands of YouTube videos on sega genisis. Something people have fond memories for but the era is long gone.
It's xboxs golden year imo it was their genisis years the time where they stuck it to the market leaders Sony.
They stuck nothing. Sony screwed themselves giving Xbox an opening. They would have gotten the usual smack down if the PS3 had launched at $399 and was easier to develop for.
The Xbox 360 launched in North America 18 years ago, and is now officially old enough to buy you a drink in Europe.
Great platform, and many of its games (not bc) still hold up well to this day. Like the PS3, I keep a 360 hooked up for those games you can't play any other way.
The last gasp of greatness from XBox, you are missed, except the RROD that was lame, but amazing exclusives until the Kinect dropped.
I really enjoyed my X360, some great exclusives on it. Used to play the shit out ot Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, two masterpieces
as a gamer i respect microsoft for letting bungie(money maker) go and do it's own thing.this was the last thing i was expecting after the release of halo3.good on ya!
*Vomits* C'mon Bungie is a good developer, but damn this divorce/breakup/kiss & makeup/I'll take the kids and send postcards public love story between Bungie and Microsoft is the most overrated and overhyped thing in recent memory next to something else that was overhyped to the stars.
We get it already - the MS Stranglehold is giving Bungie a break and allowing them to "flow" more freely.
World Domination though? Please.
I don't want it! stay with M$
I think somebody is confused about what "first right of refusal" means.
Generally it means a person or company gets first crack at the purchase, but if they decide to decline then the property can be shopped around elsewhere.
Basically if Microsoft does have first right of refusal on publishing a title, they can choose to either publish it or let Bungie take it somewhere else.
As far as I knowk, the first-right option was brought up in the flurry of rumour discussions. I have no idea if this has been confirmed, as the specifics of the Microsoft/Bungie split haven't been made public.
...is that Bungie is going to stay tight with Microsoft. Did U see that hilarious skit on "Attack of the Show" yesterday with Master Chief telling Bill Gates at a bar that "we should start seeing other people?" That bit about Master Chief meeting "this British guy named Phil and this little Japanese guy" was hysterical! Anyway, 360 fans calm down. With Halo 3, Bungie has done all it can with the 360, and has rightfully earned its independence. MS owns the rights to Halo, and its "rights of first refusal" mean that Bungie's best stuff will still be "only on Xbox 360." But now it's probably gonna cost MS more, which is only fair to Bungie after almost a decade of work straight on Halo. MY GUT FEELING IS THAT HALO 4 (sans Master Chief? Third-person? Time travel into the past or take place far into the future?) WILL BE A LAUNCH TITLE FOR THE XBOX 3 (720 or whatever). In the next few years before the next Xbox, Bungie will stretch its arms, kick back, relax, and have some fun DOING SOMETHING ELSE....