Bungie leaves Microsoft????????????
polycounter lvl 19
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/digitaljoystick/archives/122799.asp
Yowza!
Link on Digg: http://digg.com/gaming_news/BREAKING_Bungie_leaves_Microsoft
It's speculation, but still..
Yowza!
Link on Digg: http://digg.com/gaming_news/BREAKING_Bungie_leaves_Microsoft
It's speculation, but still..
Replies
apple should buy them imo, mac exclusive bungie games plz
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Please leave--->
=P
Where are the Bungie guys? Let us know.
apple should buy them imo, mac exclusive bungie games plz
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AHHHH WHAT? And eliminate almost the entire gaming world for a few people with macs...Sounds like a brilliant plan.
I mean i don't even have an iPod, I doubt I can even be taken seriously as a person.
Quality over quantity, Jesse. I hear mac users are more "hip".
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damn right we are!
just look at Bearkub. He puts the "hip" in hippy.
I'll believe it when I see a press release on bungie or microsoft's sites.
you could beat the covenant by installing itunes on their inferior windows based computers
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apple should buy them imo, mac exclusive bungie games plz
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AHHHH WHAT? And eliminate almost the entire gaming world for a few people with macs...Sounds like a brilliant plan.
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yeah we've seen the horrible bloody aftermath after marathon was released, bad times!!!
But aside from that....
Bungie's name is a valuable marketing tool in of itself, it would be a foolish move for MS to do this.
edit: "Who's the more foolish? The fool? Or the fool who follows him?"
-Obi Wan
Microsoft paid millions for Bungie, and it's probably an order of magnitude more valuable now than when they bought it. They wouldn't just "let them leave."
But its fun to pretend!
Seriously, believe when seen.
apple should buy them imo, mac exclusive bungie games plz
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*Vomits in mouth* oh please stop before I crap my pants
I was going to write this up (basically), but someone already did in a comment:
You buy a company and you sign retention agreements for key employees, i.e. the team.
These employees have HUGE financial incentive to stay so they do.
3 or 5 or 7 years later depending upon the contract, the time is up. MS formally acquired bungie about 7 years ago at this time... they announced intention on june 19th, add 3 months for presumed legal stuff, and you get september 19th, which is close today, give or take.
So... retention contracts go POOF, and suddenly a bunch of key people can leave with no penalty.
The value of a software company is A) its people and
So the people say to microsoft, we are going to leave, and while we wont solicit the rest of the team, we are their leaders and maybe theyll call us for jobs. MS knows from past experience that that will happen.. and bungie employees would like to keep their tech, so they cut a deal -- bungie goes its own way and gets a license to use all the tech it wrote while part of MS, and signs an xbox exclusive deal for a while. That's good business for MS, because the alternative is to lose the team and have them go 4-platform, which they certainly can do profitably with the games they can make.
Even if MS was the best corporate owner ever, the Halo team members have an enormous incentive to quit and start their own company with the amount of money they could make the company worth.
The email is consistent with this -- the IP is held by MS, but the team leaves. This is a common issue with software company acquisitions.
I'm just looking forward to seeing the Bioware/Bungie/Pandemic independent super conglomerate!
Before Microsoft, Bungie created games for Macs.
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You mean Myth 1/2 and Marathon 2 never happened?
It was bogus. Sorry mac users don't get your hopes up.....
don't forget Oni.
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I still own oni, it's lying on my floor a few feet away.
Since the blog post wasn't an offical PI news story I lean toward BS. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen. Adam made a good argument for it happening, but it still smacks of BS. I think the guy is just trying to drive people to his site, using Halo, Bungie and MS, do him a favor and don't go.
So it think its hyper unlikely MS would let them walk with the name.
With Bungie i think the name is worth more than the employees, how many people who buy Halo know people behind it anyways?
So it think its hyper unlikely MS would let them walk with the name.
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I think it would get out that its a different team realllly quick. The Bungie guys looooove pumping out those making of videos and splashing their faces about the game more than any other dev team has.
Also, just how many posts will cheapie make with his gimmick account? will those posts differ in any substantial way than his regular? these are the questions young adults face.
i can output a lower qaulity version, tell me if this is too big to load on yr modem?????
[edit]nvm. posted too soon.[/edit]
Yeah, I'm with ebagg. There's no way in hell halo without bungie would go unnoticed by gamers.
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Among a small percentage of hardcore gamers, yes. The vast majority of gamers however, wouldn't know the difference.
but on topic, yes, there's no way a hand-off of the main Halo franchise could occur without people noticing and possibly revolting. it's one thing for Ensemble to carefully re-create some of the Halo flavor in a genre as different as RTS is, but a direct attempt is like someone subbing in for Peter Jackson on the new Hobbit movie (if it ever gets made). people will notice.
Imagine if some small Texas based company made the next Mario game. People would know
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You mean like... exactly what happened with metroid?
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: AlphaDream
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: AlphaDream
Super Paper Mario: Intelligent Systems
Super Mario RPG, Legend of the Seven Stars: Square
Super Smash Bros. Melee: HAL Laboratory
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix: Konami
And thats just a few...
AstroZombie: Not by default, I agree, but remember the press is going to go on about it, people are going to know for sure. Word goes around. Imagine if some small Texas based company made the next Mario game. People would know
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Right, that small percentage of hard-core gamers who actually bother reading game news websites are going to know. It still stands IMO that joe-average gamer isn't going to know nor is he going to care.
Everyone here needs to remember that us and our peers are not the average gamer. Because we are passionate about games we know and care about these things. I would be willing to bet that if you asked all of the people who bought Halo 3 who developed it a large majority would answer "Microsoft" and a few would probably even answer "Xbox" or "Sony."
OK, this I can see: Jason Jones and a couple other key folks leave, pay MS $XX million for the Bungie name. MS retains the vast bulk of the people at the studio and the IP to make as much Halo as they want, plus a publishing deal for whatever the new studio is working on (which must not be a direct competitor to Halo or MS sues).
At least my wild speculation is moderately believable, unlike the guy in the first link.
The whole thing is BAZAR, and I don't know what to believe. I just hope it doesn't doom either company. It feels a bit like listening to the Y2K crazies who built bomb shelters and stockpiled food, only this time they could be right...
I really think the test for Bungie is how they handle a non halo game, weather they are in or out of MSG it doesn't really matter.
Sounds kind of similar to the whole Disney / Pixar deal which is quite a bit different than "Bungie did such a good job on Halo, MS is giving them back their freedom."
Bungie Unleashed