Bungie Software Bought By Microsoft

Cannonball writes: "An article posted by Alta Vista Tech announces the sale of Bungie to Microsoft for an undisclosed sum. Halo will become an X-Box title." There's been rumors about this for the last few days, but here's the confirmation. Bungie makes such fine titles as the Myth series - which I really enjoyed.

Comments

Re:Bungie is already dead

[Masem]

Marathon wasn't 3D; you could not create a true bridge (much less an object unconnected to any other wall), most people call it 2.5D, in that height was simulated with Z-coords from the polys. I'd even call it 2.5+D; you had the ability to overlap polys in the same X-Y space unlike Doom, thus allowing one to create 'floors' at various heights. You could even have these polys overlap at the same Z space, to allow effects where you could have players think they are in the same spot but were actually in separate parts of the map (they won't see each other, however, save by radar positioning. One of the network maps that came with the first Marathon was 5-D space that used this aspect well.)

I don't like it either, but...

[Halo1]

... it isn't the end of the world (or Bungie for that matter). Read this interview for clarification. Then you'll know that

• Bungie remains autonomous inside Microsoft
• The decision on which platforms to develop for remains completely with Bungie
• the deal with microsoft was signed on a parchment made of human skin with the blood of a virgin goat (well, they're not sure whether the goat was actually virgin, but that's just a small nit)

--

Fate of Halo

[Masem]

I read this article and the one at News.com carefully, and while it suggests that Halo may only be X-box only, I really can't see that happening. MS is trying to aim the Xbox at people that can't afford a full home computer, and thus compete with the game consoles like Dreamcast which come with limited internet access. The way I'm reading it, but obviously may not be right, is that Halo will be release first for the Xbox to allow it to be one of the first games you can get for it (possiblibly even shipping it), but at some point after the Xbox release, you'll see the PC and Mac (and Linux, maybe) releases. Especially with Halo's huge kudos at E3, *NOT* releasing this for PC platforms would be stupid. However, the article does use the word "proprietary" in here, so it may be that Halo is completely gone for the PC, which would really suck.

Not all 'carrot'

[Chris Johnson]

Bungie are too dedicated, too well known for having goodwill with their customers to have done this for the supplied reasons. Think about it- what would have stopped them from developing for X-Box as independents? NOTHING. It is NORMAL for a game company to maybe ship for a new console, perhaps even be cajoled by the console vendor. We are expected to believe that Bungie savaged their reputation and betrayed a _huge_ fanbase who are among the most dedicated fans in the industry, absolutely backstabbed them, all for the chance to develop for a console that they could have developed for- nay, that they could have been paid OFF to develop for ANYWAY.

It doesn't wash. We're not hearing the whole story.

So, since the 'carrot' is utterly, transparently inadequate as an explanation for what's going on (Halo, the Steve Jobs feature presentation of Macworld, being seized and turned into an X-Box only title), what might there be as far as the 'stick'?

We don't have to look very far. Bungie is well known for being paranoid about distribution. Its early struggles with distributors were agonising- IIRC there's a funny rant on the subject at Bungie.com. This company, more than almost any other, was _painfully_ aware of its delicate lifeline with the distributors.

All Microsoft would have had to do was threaten to have Bungie blacklisted with ALL the distributors and Bungie would have to agree to any terms. "Don't carry Bungie or we'll pull Office". No distributor would risk offending Microsoft, no distributor would carry Bungie, Bungie would be dead- it's that simple. This is the most likely 'stick'- making it easy to understand these shocking and very obvious results.

Yes this is illegal as fuck, and exactly the behaviour MS has just been found guilty of in court. Your point?

The fact that Microsoft is running amok and trying to do as much damage as it can as fast as it can is hardly surprising. It's just a little startling how _obvious_ they're willing to be with it, knowing they can move faster than the courts.

The most interesting point is this: Bungie is pretty much a top-tier developer. If they can be _seized_ in this manner and assigned to X-Box only, no developer is safe, and no market really exists- it's just a play-market. The question people should be asking themselves at this point is: who will be next? Will Id be seized and "Doom" be made an X-Box only title?

Bungie is already dead

[Junks Jerzey]

Bungie is a funny company. Their early stuff was unremarkable (pre-Marathon), as is true of most companies. Then Marathon came along, which for all intents and purposes was a DOOM clone. Mac people *hate* this, because Marathon hit the Mac before DOOM was ported, though it was released after DOOM was out for the PC. And they're quick to point out certain features, like the ability to look up and look down). But it's still very much like DOOM, and even Jason Jones has said that they were heavily influenced by that game.

Myth was good. Bungie needed to go off in another direction and this was it. Myth II was more of the same, but it was marred by a severe installation bug that could trash your hard drive.

Since then, Oni has been a big disappointment. It was announced, the release was impending, then it disappeared for a year (very little was seen of it between E3 1999 and E3 2000). Now it's a PlayStation 2 game more than a PC game, and it looks, um, really bad. The frame rate at E3 was embarrassingly poor, and the game is looking very dated.

Halo is a funny game. The "no gameplay" trailers have gotten fanboys drooling, but the reasons why are elusive. Halo isn't particularly high poly--a barren landscape with no landmarks--and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to shout about, except a distinctive art style (reflective black soliders running under a pink sky). The E3 trailer had all sorts of jumping between scenes that made it obvious that it wasn't actual gameplay. And still there's talk about how it's the ultimate next gen game. Puzzling.

So Bungie started by cloning the best company around, and they ended up creating the highly innovative and playable Myth, but now they've gone off and become yet another all-hype game company that can't help but disappoint. Could Messiah and Daikatana have done anything but disappoint after all that time? And Myth is on the same road.

Re:Bungie is already dead

[mblase]

I *am* a Mac person, and most Mac fans of the game know that Doom had nothing on Marathon. Doom was essentially a "clear the level and shoot everything in sight" game, and nothing more. The Marathon trilogy had a complicated and interesting sci-fi story behind it, complete with semi-insane AI computers and aliens who would either fight against your or for you, depending on which AI was in charge at the moment. The dialogue between the AI's and your character was so intriguing that an entire website was created just to archive it as a single, collected story.

DOOM was a fun game. Marathon was a *great* game.

Witness the grief! Nukes in Bungie land.

[tjwhaynes]

I'm stunned. I've just been over to Halo.bungie.org and the amount of invective on the forum is amazing. If Bungie was worried about what effect this announcement would have on their loyal fans, they must be feeling pretty sick at the moment.

Two long time Bungie fan sites seem to be closed or on the verge of closing - The Mill and Marathon Story. For those not in the know, these were the two linchpin sites for Myth and Marathon fans. While the announcement on The Mill is a little overheated (read the source for the real reason) its understandable given that a lot of long time fans feel as though they have just lost a close friend.

I also worry about the possibilities of a Linux port. To my knowledge, not one MS branded game has been ported to Linux, and I believe it is now highly unlikely that a Linux version of Halo or any future game from Bungie will appear, mainly because while Bungie has a say on what versions are produced, MS holds the exclusive distribution rights. MS knows that games are one of it's strongest cards, and that many Linux users keep a Windows partition to play the games available. Hey, with Descent 3, Terminus, Quake 3 Arena, Railroad Tycoon and Sim City 3000 and Halo on Linux, I would kiss my Windows partition goodbye.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes

Re:Sigh.

[rob colonna]

HALO isn't being *ported* to the Macintosh. The reason Bungie stands out among game developers is that they develop cross-platform from the ground up. That's why it's such a seamless experience from both sides, and why neither platform looks any better than the other. Quake III was the same way; not ported, but developed; that fact alone wins over Mac users for not having to wait an extra month (or, in Blizzard's case, year) for the latest and greatest. Westlake (the major porting company) does brilliant work with things like UT, but it still has to wait for the PC code to be done. It will be truly sad when a Bungie game is filled with Direct3d, DirectPlay, Direct*, and Mark Adams et. al. have to clean that stuff out.

Bye-bye Bungie..

[Clith]

Too bad. They were the premiere developer of Mac gaming titles. At least they got the source code for old games like Marathon out before they were bought..

Which Microsoft?

[wanderingwalrus]

so which Microsoft will own this? It's a worry whichever way it falls but I'm just thinking that if Windows gets Bungie then they could conceiveably cut development to other platforms (like the mac & linux) and focus on offering windows only apps?

... which leads me to another point, how on earth are Microsoft's holdings in other companies be divided? Would companies and shares aquired by Microsoft be spilt evenly? or will one half get more of another?

Myth stays with Take 2

[tc]

Although Microsoft now owns the whole of Bungie, as part of the deal, Take 2 Interactive (who used to own 19.9% of Bungie) have acquired all the rights to Oni and Myth, as well as the rights to build two titles based on the Halo engine.

Bungie have also been quoted as saying that they will remain autonomous within MS, and may continue to develop titles for non-MS platform (e.g. Mac), although it remains to see how long that lasts. I suspect that Mac titles may be allowed to continue for a little while, but PlayStation 2 titles will be knocked right on the head in favour of X-Box.

Microsoft might...

[NetCurl]

not kill off Bungie's identity. This article:
http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_ page_912_1.html

over at DailyRadar.com shows a little light at the end of the tunnel for PC/Mac gamers who liked the independent and creative Bungie.

I want more sweeties

[Dedman]

Why does microsoft continue to buy companies, someone should explain the benifits of hiring and paying companies, rather than absorbing and destroying them.

Surely Microsoft already has it's own gaming department, why buy a dynamic succesfull inventive company just to integrate it with the bogged down, corporate coders of microsoft.

And another thing, if the programmers of Bungie have been bought out and given near garanteed job security, why the hell would they bother to make any more good games. The chance of the company failing or succeeding on the next project is what makes the smaller companies make such good games.

Want an example, what about the massive EA-sports, what the hell original games have they created recently??? Just the same old "New Improved Fifa", all they seem to do is update the player names for the latest tournament.

Rant over

Suckus maximums

[Bad Mojo]

I have been really looking forward to HALO. Bungie seemed like a group who seriously took their fans opinions to heart. If they decide to release HALO only for the XBox, I'll feel seriously betrayed. Bungie has had a very die hard following of Mac and PC users ever since HALO has been announced and if Bungie suffers for ditching those people in order to get more `say' on how the XBox is created, then so be it.

Oh well, there are other games coming out. I'm sure someone can fill Bungies shoes in the PC/Mac arena.

Bad Mojo