But now that the hugeness of the announcement has set in, some things need to be made clear, as many smaller details of the deal got missed initially and only now have become clear via interviews and other news. Here’s what you should know:
Bungie is only exclusive with Activision for this specific game series
When one reads a headline stating “Activision signs Bungie” and “10-year exclusive” you’d be forgiven for jumping to the conclusion that any Bungie game until 2020 will be published Acti, but that just isn’t so. Bungie'sBrian Jarrard set the record straight, telling fans that the contract only means that whatever their new series is, only that is exclusive to be published by Activision for the next decade. If Bungie works on any unrelated property, they can publish that wherever. The situation isn’t that different from what Epic and the Gears of War franchise is to Microsoft. Epic makes the games and owns the IP, but they have a pretty exclusive deal with Microsoft for the series, which is why it hasn’t gone elsewhere. But that doesn’t stop Epic from making Unreal games or the just announced Bulletstorm and publishing those elsewhere.
Bungie is still an independent company
Above: Bungie'slast break-up
Don’t think for a minute Bungie has sold out any of their hard earned independence to work with Activision. No, they’re still as free as they have been since the shocking break from Microsoft nearly three years ago. This type of partnership is what they wanted ever since that split, particularly because…
Bungie owns the rights to whatever new game they%26rsquo;re making
Above: Bet they wish they owned this
After all the hullabaloo with Infinity Ward and Activision, with one of the major sticking points apparently being IW wanting to own the Modern Warfare IP and Activision choosing to keep it, it was good to hear from the beginning thatBungie owns the rights to what Activision will publish. Ten years of exclusivity may be a long time, but having the developers own their product when dealing with a company as big as Activision is very rare.
The new game will be on the PS3
Above: This is the system it will come to
Technically it hasn’t been said specifically that their next game is coming to PS3, but it has been made it very clear that it will bemultiplatform, so we feel it is 99.9999999999999999999999 percent certain the PS3 will be amongthem. Activision games get on every console technology allows, so why would Bungie’s next game be 360 and PC only? Not gonna happen.
The new game won%26rsquo;t be at E3
Above: But this one sure will
Yes, we’re all excited to see what this mystery game is but you’ll have to be patient. It has already been saidthe game won’t be at this year’s E3and probably not even this year. Why? Tthey have a little game called Halo: Reach to finish first, so don’t expect them to distract from that hype by showing off whatever their next thing is.
Apr 30, 2010
