bungie posts

Bungie is trying to cover up something that was reportedly said during a GDC 2011 presentation this week. You may remember that some web sites who attended a panel hosted by Bungie's David Aldridge reported that he said that Bungie was working on a "massively multiplayer action game" but that it would not be "WoW in Space."

Well, now Bungie seems to be doing some damage control, stating that in rehearsing his GDC 2011 presentation "... Aldridge was convinced that everybody got the joke. It was all in the delivery, he assured us, and he was certain it was clear that he was playfully riffing off of the recent rumors." Bungie even managed to throw in a joke comparing him to Charlie Sheen (our second mention of him today).

It's important to note that Bungie didn't actually deny that the team is working on a massively multiplayer action game, but for the moment officially we are now back to square one on figuring out what the development studio is reall working on.

While there have been lots of rumors about what the next game from Halo creator Bungie will be like, it seems like a lecture at GDC 2011 has confirmed that the title won't be "just" a first person shooter. IGN reports that Bungie ead network engineer David Aldridge told the GDC 2011 audience that the developer's next game would be a "massively multiplayer action game."

Details about the game are still under lockdown at Bungie and the game's publisher Activision but Aldridge did say that the game is not "WoW in space." That would seem to indicate that perhaps the game willl turn away from the sci-fi roots that Bungie established in its highly successful Halo shoter series.

[Via VG247.com]

It sound like today was not a good day to be at Activision. We offer our sincere condolences for those who are now looking for new gigs today:

• Steam has new updates for Clones and Railworks 2.
• Blizzard has donated $75,000 to the Children's Hospital of Orange County Children's Foundation via a BlizzCon 2010 VIP dinner.
• There are more hints that Raven Software is making a James Bond game.
• Trion Worlds has announced that if you buy a retail copy of its fantasy MMO Rift from Wal Mart players will get the exclusive Shambler Hatchling pet.
• Activision execs said today the First Strike DLC map pack for Call of Duty Black Ops will be released for the PC sometime before the end of March.
• Just in case you were not sure, the new Bungie game from its new publisher Activision won't be released in 2011.

A good portion of the country is in a deep freeze. All the better to stay at home and play some games with friends.

• Steam has a new beta version of Monday Night Combat available for download for people who pre-ordered the game.
• GoG.com has added the original version of Broken Sword for free when people buy the new Director's Cut version of the adventure game
• Bungie has filed for a number of trademarks to various names. Not really helpful but some people like seeing this stuff.
• More Far Cry 3 speculation hits the internets.
• A Battlefield Bad Company 2/Vietnam server patch has been released that fixes, among other things, the "invisible boat bug"
• The two Penny Arcade Adventures games are selling well on the new Mac App Store but a third installment is still not coming.
• Check out this feature-length movie made inside Grand Theft Auto IV.
• And finally: by this time tomorrow, Minecraft is most likely to have gone over the 1 million units sales mark.

Bungie is one of the few independent game developers that can truly write its own ticket in the business. Now the Redmond, Washington-based company is looking to its fan community to sign up and beta test its next game, the first in a planned series of titles to be published by Activision.

While details of the game have been kept under wraps there is recent evidence that the title will be coming to the PC platform. In a post on the Bungie web site the company its huge fan base "to officially put your name on the list of those willing to lend a helping hand." Signing up to be a Bungie tester will include, among other things, "Alpha and Beta Testing for our next game." Bungie states that "hundreds of thousands of gamers will likely be needed before all is said and done" so it sound like there's a good chance you could be chosen to play test Bungie's next game project.

When Activision announced earlier this year that it would be the exclusive publisher for the next original game from Halo creator Bungie, both parties would not confirm which game platforms the title would appear on. Today, during an investment conference, a slide may have revealed that Bungie's next game series will indeed show up for the PC.

The online slide was part of Activision's presentation today during the BMO Capital Markets 18th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference. As you can see above the listing is for Bungie's new title to be for "Con" (consoles) as well as PC and online. If this is indeed the case it would be the first internally developed PC title from Bungie since Oni was released way back in January 2001 (Both the PC ports of Halo 1 and 2 were handled by developers outside of Bungie).

If you want to know the benefits of giving folks a chance to play a game for free for a limited time, take a look at Minecraft. The indie sandbox title was already gaining popularity when the game's registration servers melted down earlier this month, which caused an unplanned "free" weekend of play for people who downloaded Minecraft.

When the registration server went back online, lots of folks who played Minecraft for free decided to pay for the game. On September 23, two days later, 25,633 copies of Minecraft were sold according to m00d.net which is tracking sales of the game. That means Minecraft brought in close to $350,000 in that one day. Since then sales have dipped down to "just" over 10,000 copies a day. You do the math.

Meanwhile Minecraft's creator Markus Persson has updated his blog site with more news on building his game development company, saying that he's been occupied lately by "meetings and lawyers, accountants, banks, potential partners, potential employees, and the occasional interview. " Four people are confirmed now for the development studio with more being interviewed but they have still not secured an office.

[Via MCV]

It's been an interesting week so far. Civilization V came out, a web site said it was shutting down and then came back and Grey's Anatomy had its season premiere. Oh wait, that last one didn't have anything to do with games. Our bad.

• The indie game hit Eufloria will be ported over to the Mac (along with the iPhone and iPad) in early 2011.
• The downloadable expansion pack Escape to Barnacle Bay for The Sims 3 is now available from the game's online store for 1,650 Sims Points.
• Bungie co-founder Peter Tamte challenges Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick to release just the online portion of Call of Duty: Black Ops for a fair price. Yeah, we are not sure why either.

Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick is known for making some pretty wacky quotes. Recently he seems to made a huge whopper that pretty much slams a ton of great game developers. As reported by Computer and Video Games, Kotick recently stated that in his opinion, the team at Bungie are "probably the last remaining high quality independent developer."

Kotick made those statements last week at the America Merrill Lynch Media, Comms and Entertainment conference, adding that Bungie "sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they're a real company." Gee. Do you think Valve, Epic Games, or Gearbox Software, among many others, might have something to say to Kotick about his opinions?

[Via Blue's News]

The indie sandbox game Minecraft has generated a lot of press and also a lot of sales recently, even though the game is technically still in an alpha stage (the game's official web site says that over 125,000 copies of Minecraft have been sold). The creator of the game, Markus "Notch" Persson, recently returned to his native Sweden after a visit to the US where he met with fans as well as members of Valve and Bungie.

In his latest blog post Persson states that he has been saving up his money and now plans to hire more people and launch "a proper company" in concert with a unnamed partner. Minecraft will continue to be developed by Persson while a second game project will also begin. Persson states, "It will be developed in parallel with Minecraft, and has a fairly different style both in visuals and gameplay." There no other info on what the second game will be like.