After so many rumors floating abound that the masterminds behind the record breaking Halo franchise would leave Microsoft, an explanation about how exactly this could've happened has surfaced on the net:
Gameinformer Reports:
"Our source stated that Bungie is "tired of Making Halo, and didn't want to do future Halo games." For an unstated, but significant amount of money, Bungie shareholders bought the studio name back from Microsoft. Our source also revealed that even though Microsoft will retain the rights to Halo, Microsoft also has "the right of first refusal on future games." This means that Microsoft has the first shot at publishing Bungie's future titles. How this will come into play if Bungie decides they want future game X to appear on the PlayStation 3 and Wii alongside an Xbox 360 release will make things quite interesting."
More after the jump.
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
Might be a great game but it clearly did not make enough money to justify having the team make another game (under the MS umbrella).
It's never been just about whether your game is good or bad. The industry is full of great/underrated games that have a cult following or critical acclaim, but that fail to make great sales. Sad but true. It's a high stakes game, and at the end of the day, companies have to be profitable and make profitable investments. At the very least, there has to be the expectation of a long-term profit even if not profitable today. That goes for anything, no matter if the company is gigantic or a tiny mom-and-pop. We don't have to like it, but our buying habits played a hand in creating this monster.
I will keep harping that the industry has overreached its actual market and that it will implode. That implosion is already starting.
“…make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down.”
I got chills. It shouldn’t have come to this.
Interview with Stephen Russell, Actor for (Nick Valentine, Codsworth, My Handy) in Fallout 4 which is a vast open world role playing game set in the apocalyptic wastes of Boston, the Commonwealth. The career goes further with other Bethesda games from Starfield to Prey to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
This looks like a great way to play.
Rocksmith+, the award winning music-learning app that teaches you guitar and piano with thousands of hit songs, is coming to PlayStation and Steam on June 6, and is available to wishlist now on both platforms.
I can see several reasons why this may actually be a smart move:
1. Allowing the shareholders to buy back Bungie allows MS to maintain goodwill with the developers and ensures that they will continue to favor the 360 platform.
2. By allowing Bungie to buy itself back, but retaining right of first refusal to publish all future games, MS has a better chance of keeping the core developer talent together in a unit that is friendly to the 360 instead of having talented people break away to form other studios. The name Bungie isn't worth much without the talent that made it great.
3. Having Bungie function as an independent studio is more consistent with MS current approach to developing and nurturing new IPs. Instead of buying developers like Sony, MS just provides development funding in exchange for exclusive publishing rights to specific franchises. This worked so well with Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden. This way MS does not get saddled with extra salaries and other overhead when the development teams are idle or not producing hits. Moreover, MS can move a franchise to another development team to infuse fresh talent and ideas into it (i.e., PGR4).
4. Bungie has had a long enough string of hits for MS and it's uncertain how long the streak will continue, but it's unreasonable to assume that it will go on forever. It's like a sports team trading an aging franchise player early enough while they can still get some decent value in return. MS probably figured that keeping Bungie is not worth fighting and pissing off its developers.
I can think of several other reasons but my point is, such a move, if true, is not as stupid as it first seems.
Edit:
Marinelife, Bungie is worth a lot more now than when MS bought it. MS could have given Bungie a break on the buyback price in exchange for first refusal rights. I'm not saying that's what happened, just that this story is not an obvious load of crock.
who really heard of bungie before halo?
some developers will jump ship to work on other things.
other developers who love halo will be chomping at the bit to work on a halo game and will come on board.
microsoft will promote the hell out of halo 4 and make a ton of money for it.
no smart shareholder in bungie would even consider splitting from MS right now.
Nowdays usually turn out to be true. I believe this.
Welcome Bungie, to the PlayStation 3?
And now all you haters out there I really don't care about Bungie developing for the PS3 it's just finally good to see them develop something other than Halo.
Oh btw thats a lot of bubbles meus lol!