In somewhat of a shock to the videogame industry, Bungie studios (creators of the classic Halo franchise) has just announced a 10-year publishing deal with Activision. They left their Microsoft overlords 3 years ago, but have remained pretty much an Xbox-exclusive shop. This might change that.
“Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices,” the release explains. “Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.”
Lest you hope that Halo might be coming to Wii or PS3, they signed over rights to the Halo franchise to 343 Industries, so it will probably stay Xbox-only. However, this will bring the talent of Bungie in future franchises to (hopefully) a wider audience. Perhaps what shocks people the most is this:
“We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.”
Keeping such a deal secret for 9 months is quite an accomplishment.
via Activision and Bungie ink surprising 10-year publishing deal. and FiringSquad.
