14 DAY TRIAL // Bungie is preparing to launch something new after being linked with the Halo franchise for quite a bit of time. The development studio, which separated from Microsoft in 2007, is now engaged into a ten-year deal with publisher Activision, meaning that all new games based on fresh intellectual property they create will be exclusively distributed by the partner in question. Bungie still has its own series and it seems it might take on some work for other projects.
Brian Jarrard, who is the community manager at Bungie, has been making the rounds talking about the big announcement and told UGO that the studio he represents might work with Activision and other studios the publisher manages on other titles.
He said, “It's a discussion that might come up, but they partnered with us specifically based on the vision that we have, and the universe and games that we want to bring to the world in the next decade. Who's to know if there are other discussions where we have chances to work together in other areas, but that wasn't one of the core talking points in making this deal.”
It's not yet clear whether the game-oriented technology, especially the game engine, that are created for the new Bungie project will be owned by the developer or by Activision. But it's clear that the move to creating games, which will arrive on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and even on the Nintendo Wii will pose a challenge for a team that has only worked for the Xbox 360. Jarrard states that Activision can help here because the other teams they manage have experience on a variety of platforms.
Bungie is not yet ready to talk about its new videogame universe but a team is already hard at work with the full studio shifting to it once Halo: Reach is launched. An official announcement might arrive early in 2011 but there are rumors and speculations to keep the Bungie hungry nourished until then.