Katie MarsalEven as copies of Halo 3 have barely reached gamers' hands, reports have claimed that its developer Bungie may jump ship from Microsoft to pursue other games, and potentially other game platforms.
The decision by the game developer to walk away from what many have described as a lucrative partnership was not trivial, the insider claimed. Rather, the issue for Bungie was control over its own fate, which became more and more elusive as the firm's Halo games grew in popularity and Microsoft saw the game house as a dependable source of revenue.
"Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days," the source wrote in an e-mail message. "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 [...], and how stingie [sic] they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry)."
A separate tip handed to GameInformer appeared to corroborate the story and added that Microsoft's compensation was to earn both the rights to future Halo games and the right to first refusal, which would let the Xbox 360 maker become the first possible candidate to publish any future Bungie title.
Microsoft did not refute the claim outright, instead telling Kotaku that it had not publicized any agreement. "There's been no such announcement," said a spokesperson from Microsoft's public relations firm, Edelman. "We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3."
In spite of the conditions that would be attached to the deal, the departure would effectively return Bungie to the independent status it held before Microsoft's acquisition of the studio in June 2000 and would free the company to pursue games for non-Microsoft platforms, including the Mac, PlayStation 3, and Wii.
Bungie's shift in allegiance has often been cited as a prime example of Apple's inability to support gaming in recent years. While the game developer had started as a Mac-only company and continued to produce Mac versions of Oni and the first two Myth games virtually side-by-side with their Windows equivalents, the company was successfully courted by Microsoft, which put a halt to Mac development soon afterwards.
Whether the changes in the game industry over the past seven years would encourage a return to development was strictly a matter of speculation. Bungie itself refrained from commenting on the situation and instead redirected members of the press to Edelman, which again refused a definitive statement on the matter.
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111 Comments
Mac sucks @ Gaming; Microsoft wipes the floor with Mac when it comes to Gaming. It's kind a sad how the departure of Bungie is considered important news for Mac ROFL
The rumor is not even confirmed and it wont be confirmed!
Sorry Mac, No Halo 3 for you!
And while you guys finish making "home movies" with your iMovie, me and other gamers around the world on PC platform (Funny eh? there are more PC gamers than mac users ROFL) will do some nice multi-player games! Oh wait....there is a chess game in Mac OSX !
What does it matter anymore...
Alex Seropian and most of the original Bungie team left a long time ago to form Wideload, leaving Jason "Kiss Ass" Jones as the only remaining original Bungie developer in the hands of MS. I dunno how much Jason had an impact on the Pathway into Darkness story, the Marathon story or the Myth story but I'm guessing not that much. I think Jason Jones was the lead programmer so all the creative goodness went to Wideload. It kinda shows too. The Halo serie had a somewhat lackluster storyline.
The multiplayer aspect of Halo is excellent but...so was Marathon's and Myth's multiplayer...the multiplayer games are pretty much a direct copy of the previous games (King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, etc.)
I've never really played Oni (developed by Bungie West I believe and they had development problems that really put a damper on things...multiplayer dropped and levels that felt incomplete according to people that had played the game). I haven't really played Wideload's Stubb the Zombie...I heard it wasn't all that good but it sure was original in a sense.
Anyway...I don't feel like anything good will ever come out of Bungie ever again (or even Wideload)...even if they both produce Mac games. Although, I'm sure they would make more money than most game companies. I mean, if it says Bungie or Blizzard on the box it usually is a good game. And Bungie's games (cept for Oni and PiD) always had solid multiplayer (which seems to be the only thing people care about nowadays.)
Mac sucks @ Gaming; Microsoft wipes the floor with Mac when it comes to Gaming. It's kind a sad how the departure of Bungie is considered important news for Mac ROFL
The rumor is not even confirmed and it wont be confirmed!
Sorry Mac, No Halo 3 for you!
And while you guys finish making "home movies" with your iMovie, me and other gamers around the world on PC platform (Funny eh? there are more PC gamers than mac users ROFL) will do some nice multi-player games! Oh wait....there is a chess game in Mac OSX !
Have issues much? How sad.
I'd like to believe that this may perhaps inspire Apple to build computers with better graphics capabilities but I highly doubt it. As it stands now, Bungie would be VERY stupid to sign an exclusive contract to make games for Apple computers.
I'm still pissed off over the interview with Valve's main guy about how Apple treats them. Valve only makes the most incredible PC games ever. I loved playing all there games on Steam. Valve titles kill all Halo series as far as looks and content. If Apple blows it with them, it just shows how clueless they are at gaming. They are limiting there overall sales in a big way. If I had a dime for all the people who told me they would switch to Apple if they could play games on them I'd be very well off indeed.Man I actually miss my Windows based computer now. Thank goodness I bought that Xbox360 and can go pick up Valve's Orange Box this week and play it on there even though it won't look as good as the PC version.Let's see how Leopard runs games natively...(fingers crossed).
Mac sucks @ Gaming; Microsoft wipes the floor with Mac when it comes to Gaming. It's kind a sad how the departure of Bungie is considered important news for Mac ROFL
The rumor is not even confirmed and it wont be confirmed!
Sorry Mac, No Halo 3 for you!
And while you guys finish making "home movies" with your iMovie, me and other gamers around the world on PC platform (Funny eh? there are more PC gamers than mac users ROFL) will do some nice multi-player games! Oh wait....there is a chess game in Mac OSX !
You created an account to talk smack about what you speculate on. Your life must truly be dull.