Respawn's unannounced game vs. Bungie's unannounced game

We haven’t played them. We haven’t seen them. We don’t know what they’re about, or even what they’re called. [UPDATE: Oh, hey! They're called TitanFall and Destiny!] All we know is that they exist,but damned if we aren’t going to pit them against each other! This is by far the most least informative comparison ever.

So, what’sRespawn, the new studio createdby former Infinity Ward founders, up to? It’s a safe bet that the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty luminaries are making a shooter. The same goes for the soon-to-be-free-of-Halo Bungie, and with Bungie, it’s also a safe bet that it’s a sci-fi shooter. Since Respawn is the bastard child of Infinity Ward, we can probably expect a gritty war game like Modern Warfare… but suppose they defy our expectations and go sci-fi? Gritty sci-fi? Or something completely different? Damn, this is harder than we thought.

Above: Look closely, these are the clues to the nature of two of the biggest games coming in the next few years

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We’ve said several timesthat we’d love a sci-fi Call of Duty -something with the same CoD mechanics (we’re not talking Halo's fifty bullets per kill), but a new, futuristic setting and arsenal. We imagine that Activision won’t take that risk any time soon, but how cool would that be? Could Respawn be taking that direction? Bungie could also be taking a more realistic angle after spending so long developing the, let’s face it, arcadey Halo series.

The possibility that they’ll go in similar directions makes them competitors, but so do their backers. After their well-publicizedfalling out with Activision, Respawn’s founders grabbed a distribution deal with EA. Bungie, on the other hand,went to Activisionfor multi-platform distribution after being tied to Microsoft for the duration of the Halo series. EA publishes the two most direct and significant Call of Dutycompetitors, Medal of Honor and Battlefield, and though the team at Respawn is not involved with those series, their being in EA’s camp (even if just for distribution) puts them in opposition with Bungie andActivision'scamp.

Above: This is war (games)!

Yes, this is a massively speculative bit of "gamz jarnlism," but it's fun to speculate. What do you think Respawn and Bungie are working on? What would you like them to be working on? Maybe they'll both surprise us andmake Kinect and Move party games! (Please, no.)

Jun 22, 2010