Bungie signs 10-year Activision deal
Former Microsoft studio hands publisher all rights to bring its games to market for a decade
Bungie, the former Microsoft development studio responsible for the Halo trilogy of games, has announced a decade-long deal with Activision, which will see the publisher take charge of bringing its games to market across multiple platforms.
The developer is working on new intellectual property, and will retain the rights to that IP under the terms of the deal - which was nine months in the making.
"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."
The move comes at an interesting time for the world's largest videogames publisher, which saw its president and CEO Mike Griffith resign last week amid the ongoing messy - and very public - implosion of its Infinity Ward studio.
The announcement of the deal with Bungie, however, couldn't have come at a better time for Activision, and will be seen by many as a direct reaction to the steady departure of many senior figures from the Call of Duty team - despite discussions having gone on for some time.
Bungie's games, including Halo, Myth and Marathon, have sold over 25 million units in their time, with the first of those franchises netting some $1.5 billion in revenues on the Xbox and Xbox 360 platforms.
"Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade," added Thomas Tippl, COO of Activision Blizzard. "Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry's best creative talent.
"Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities."
Pity. Bungie have to be one of the most recognisable developers out there, maybe even the most (bar maybe Rockstar?) so I am not sure why they would need the 'reach' of Activision. Though it will be interesting to see where they are going with this.
At least they will have their IP though, thats a massive thing.
There wont be Halo though, unless a deal is struck, as Microsoft own the franchise.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Kane Caswell on 29th April 2010 1:56pm
I thought the same thing that the article said. They made this public now only because of the IW issues...
Maybe to show that there are still big developers out there that want to work with Activision. (for 10 years!!!)
So we won't have ACTI branded Halo.
The IP control is a huge deal.
It's perfect timing considering all the bad press from the Infinity ward breakup
Let's hope they were smart enough to lock that up too.
So IW going so Bungie take the Activision call! Can't wait to see how Bungie develop on the PS3.... if they can.
*Personal wish*(I hope they'll do a remake of Oni on the Xbox 360! :P
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Joe Bognar on 29th April 2010 1:58pm
It's a studio only liked by Halo fanboys.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Joe Bognar on 29th April 2010 2:17pm
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Denis Dyack on 29th April 2010 2:31pm
It isn't made clear in the original story, but this deal seems to only reign over one IP, leaving the door wide open for Bungie to have multiple teams working on different projects. From the main press release:
"Under the terms of the agreement, 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. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property."
I think Bungie know what they're doing. It sounds like a deal more akin to the one's made with EA under their EA Partners banner.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Ben Hewett on 29th April 2010 2:46pm
The IP ownership will obviously give Bungie a huge amount of leeway when it gets to contract renegotiation.
I can see why Activision would be an attractive partner for Bungie. Say what you will about them, Activision does respect individual studio culture, and that always seemed like a big deal for Bungie.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Dan Lowe on 29th April 2010 2:46pm
I'm sure Bungie will have got themselves a good deal, though - and they'll have had a lot of flexibility in doing so, given the studio's history. Interested to see what they come up with. I was of the understanding Microsoft had first refusal on all their developments, so I wonder how they feel about this agreement.
I hope this works out well for everyone involved. It's important to recognise that Bungies options were actually very limited.
Unless Bungie went fully down the self publishing route they could only strike a deal with a small shortlist of publishers who have the resources to a) fund a deal and b) Drive the success of their titles & franchises over and above that achieved with Microsoft.
We can probably disregard platform holders (certainly Nintendo) leaving Activision, EA and Ubisoft as the most likely contenders. For those championing EA, bear in mind that EA have had also been criticised in the past for their handling of acquired studios - something they have accepted and made efforts to address. Hopefully lessons will have been learned from the IW fiasco and the future will be brighter for all involved.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Matthew Hill on 29th April 2010 5:18pm
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Radha Kotamarti on 29th April 2010 3:43pm
Multi-platform experience is the key for me here, and it does make me hope for some great work gracing the PS3 :)
Also great move ensuring that the IP is owned by Bungie.
Personally, to me, it's the length of the deal that's the most surprising and worrying. Ten years is a long time to commit...
(Sadly, it would appear Apple has just hired ATVI's PR firm.)
Of course, Bungie don't 'work for' Activision, this is a partnership, and evidently people are ignoring this fact. So I wont deny that people here are jumping to conclusions.
Good luck to them - far too early to tell how this will all pan out.
Like Matthew Hill said, it's not like Bungie were overwhelmed with choice. Whether they made the right one, time will tell.
Congrats to Bungie and I hope they can fully concentrate on their new baby once Reach will go gold!
I’m sure the team negotiating for/ at Bungie have been careful to assess the benefits and potential problems associated with contracting with a huge corporate structure such as Activision, the time taken to bring the negotiations to fruition seems to bear this out.
Idle speculation aside, the truest test of the success of his arrangement is the quality of games that they produce.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jay Crowe on 30th April 2010 5:08pm
Still, a lot of folks saying they'll never buy from Activision again, but then people always say stuff like that. It reminds me of all the folks on Steam who were adamant they were going to boycott MW2 and on release day something like half of them were online in... you guessed it... MW2.
I think this is a good time to join Activision for Bungie. Like mentioned before, they might get more out of the deal now that the IW-spectacle is still fresh in people's minds. 10 years does look pretty long though. Will Bungie even survive those 10 years?
I don't own any of Bungie's games but i've played Halo2 for a while and it's pretty cool. I'd like to see what they'd cook up for ps3.