Topic: Bungie signs 10 year exclusive publishing agreement with YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING

[Shaymin]

Activision has signed Bungie in a mammoth 10-year publishing deal. The   publisher will have worldwide rights to "bring Bungie's next big action   game universe to market".    "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." 
  The press release points out that Bungie "remains an independent company   and will continue to make their own intellectual property". 
  Bungie boss Harold Ryan said the studio picked Activision for its   "global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise". This   suggests that the Halo maker is finally going to develop for formats   other than Xbox 360.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-signs-10-year-activision-deal_5
Key statement: Bungie owns the IP, so this is more of an EA Partners thing. Still... goddamn.

[TJ Spyke]

I am surprised by two things: that they didn't do the deal with Microsoft (which means their games could appear on PlayStation 3 and Wii), and that it's for 10 YEARS. The wording says for new IPs. I take this to mean that they could make new Marathon games and have them be published by Microsoft.

[Chozo Ghost]

Looks like Activision now has another studio to push around and rob of their lunch money.

[UltimatePartyBear]

After the success of the Halo series, I bet Bungie has a big enough war chest to stay independent for more than ten years, even if they pull a Duke Nukem Forever.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Looks like Activision now has another studio to push around and rob of their lunch money.

I don't know. I hope it just means that Activision has first refusal rights on any Bungie property (outside of Halo) and that if Activision passes on it, they can shop it to another Publisher.... otherwise, with all the mess that's going on right now, you think they would wait till the dust settles around the Activsion offices before making a solid agreement unless they have a game that's ready to go (and they had MS lawyers check the fine print, cross the "t"'s and dot the "i"'s).

[TJ Spyke]

I'm not sure what incentive Microsoft would have to help out the competition. This deal means that Activision Blizzard will be publishing Bungie's games, and they can choose to not make Xbox 360 versions.

[BlackNMild2k1]

But MS still has rights to Halo and a very good relationship with Bungie. They wouldn't be helping out the competition (which is Activision), they would be helping out a friend and business partner and preventing them from getting screwed(over the next 10 years) so that they are still able to focus on Halo games when the time arrives in the future.

completely hypothetical, but I'm sure MS would gladly lend a hand from their lawyers to review the contract as long as Bungie made sure there was always a 360 version of every game published by Activsion from them.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Ok. on a re-read and reading a full article from a different source, I can clear something up right now.

Activision has a 10 year exclusive publishing agreement for Bungie's next NEW IP (that is singular). That means that if Bungie's next game flops hard, that is it unless Bungie makes a sequel to that IP. the next new IP after that is up for grabs.

“We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. “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.”

So there is no worries over this decision unless Bungie somehow game creative control to Activision so that they can dictate when and how the game and it's sequels are made, which I'm sure they didn't.

[Ian Sane]

With Activision's recent lawsuit with Infinity Ward I'm surprised Bungie would want to be involved with them.  I'm guessing Bungie wants to make multiplatform games.  Otherwise they might as well stay with MS.  There is no point in going with a company like Activision to make Xbox 360 exclusives.  Even then, with the X360 being the more popular of the HD consoles, I'd argue it only logically makes sense to go outside of MS to make Wii or DS games.  Being able to make PS3 ports seems like it would have minimal value.

[Chozo Ghost]

Would this be kinda like with Rare where they were allowed to make games for the DS even though they were owned by Microsoft?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not at all since Bungie owns Bungie. They bought their freedom from their masters a little while back.

So this would be like Activision is exclusive publisher to 1(one) New Bungie IP (and any sequels that it may spawn) for the next 10 years.

Not really that big of deal when you consider that Bungie owns the property, has complete creative control and should the IP fail miserably, then there is no need to worry about the rest of the 10 years on that agreement.

[Chozo Ghost]

With Activision's recent lawsuit with Infinity Ward I'm surprised Bungie would want to be involved with them.  I'm guessing Bungie wants to make multiplatform games.  Otherwise they might as well stay with MS.  There is no point in going with a company like Activision to make Xbox 360 exclusives.  Even then, with the X360 being the more popular of the HD consoles, I'd argue it only logically makes sense to go outside of MS to make Wii or DS games.  Being able to make PS3 ports seems like it would have minimal value.

How do you know that isn't what they had in mind? Activision has published many titles on Nintendo platforms. What makes you think this is just for the PS3?

[Ian Sane]

How do you know that isn't what they had in mind? Activision has published many titles on Nintendo platforms. What makes you think this is just for the PS3?

A lot of games are made for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and not the Wii.  So it would not be unbelievable if the same thing happened here.  And I would consider that to be a huge waste.  If you're going to leave MS you should reap the full fruits of multiplatform development.
 
Actually what I figure would happen is Bungie would make the PS360 verison and then some other team would make a Wii port, that's released later.

[MoronSonOfBoron]

*crossing fingers for Pimps At Sea*

[Shaymin]

"You know, the Treyarch Pimps at Sea games just aren't as good."

[ThePerm]

The Reason why Bungie did this was because its a good deal, the reason why Activision did it is damage control. Hey Bungie we have these bonus checks we never sent out for millions of dollars...wanna make games for us?

[BranDonk Kong]

Halo of Duty. Just wait.

[Chozo Ghost]

Call of Halo.

[BlackNMild2k1]

When is porn gonna get into parody gaming?

Call of Booty

[Dirk Temporo]

I'd argue it only logically makes sense to go outside of MS to make Wii or DS games.

That's a terrible argument and there is literally no way you could ever make that point against anybody with any sort of financial know-how. More sales is more sales dude. It doesn't matter what platform they're on, or how much more platform X sold than platform Y. Platform X was going to sell A anyway, and platform Y just adds B to the sales.

And you're totally ignoring the Wii, dude. Larger installed fanbase than any of the other consoles, and you're talking about one of the single most popular developers in the last ten years. If anybody could whip the third-party games into shape, it's Bungie.

[Adrock]

Activision has a 10 year exclusive publishing agreement for Bungie's next NEW IP (that is singular). That means that if Bungie's next game flops hard, that is it unless Bungie makes a sequel to that IP. the next new IP after that is up for grabs.

So, in other words, people are making a big deal out of nothing. Correct me if I'm wrong, for this to even have happened, Microsoft had to have turned this project down first since they originally had right to first refusal and now Bungie signed a deal with Activision to have right to first refusal. This could turn out of be Too Human all over again......

[ControlerFleX]

And you're totally ignoring the Wii, dude. Larger installed fanbase than any of the other consoles, and you're talking about one of the single most popular developers in the last ten years. If anybody could whip the third-party games into shape, it's Bungie.

Nah....

Nobody can "whip 3rd Party gaming into shape" on the Wii. Only a few Wii owners want's/cares about premier developers for the Wii. Yes yes the shear numbers of 70+ Million world wide should constitute in at least each title selling 700,000 but it just doesn't happen.

Take NSMBW for example, it's sales are super impressive..... they should be crazy stupid insane good!

WE(the folks that enjoy sites like this) would love some Bungie luv on the Wii but it definitely does not = Success.

[GoldenPhoenix]

And you're totally ignoring the Wii, dude. Larger installed fanbase than any of the other consoles, and you're talking about one of the single most popular developers in the last ten years. If anybody could whip the third-party games into shape, it's Bungie.

Nah....

Nobody can "whip 3rd Party gaming into shape" on the Wii. Only a few Wii owners want's/cares about premier developers for the Wii. Yes yes the shear numbers of 70+ Million world wide should constitute in at least each title selling 700,000 but it just doesn't happen.

Take NSMBW for example, it's sales are super impressive..... they should be crazy stupid insane good!

WE(the folks that enjoy sites like this) would love some Bungie luv on the Wii but it definitely does not = Success.

So selling close to 15 million copies isn't crazy insane good? Rrright.

[NWR_insanolord]

And you're totally ignoring the Wii, dude. Larger installed fanbase than any of the other consoles, and you're talking about one of the single most popular developers in the last ten years. If anybody could whip the third-party games into shape, it's Bungie.

Nah....

Nobody can "whip 3rd Party gaming into shape" on the Wii. Only a few Wii owners want's/cares about premier developers for the Wii. Yes yes the shear numbers of 70+ Million world wide should constitute in at least each title selling 700,000 but it just doesn't happen.

Take NSMBW for example, it's sales are super impressive..... they should be crazy stupid insane good!

WE(the folks that enjoy sites like this) would love some Bungie luv on the Wii but it definitely does not = Success.

So selling close to 15 million copies isn't crazy insane good? Rrright.

Yeah, NSMBWii has already sold more copies than well over 99% of the games that have ever been made, and is still selling very well. I don't understand what more you could expect than that.

[Adrock]

You guys are ridiculous. Did you buy 2? No? Not that impressive. That's what he means.