bungie-studios 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.

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).

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]

Today's announcement that Activision Blizzard had signed a deal with Halo developer Bungie to release their next original game franchise for the next 10 years was surprising. However, Gamasutra reports that, according to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, the first game in that agreement is already "well along in its development"

How "well along" is it? Pachter believes that the first title in the new franchise is likely to be released "next year" with additional games in the series coming every two years after that. Pachter also says that this new agreement will not affect Activision's commitment to their Call of Duty shooter series. He states, "The majority of the 20 million people who bought Call of Duty have no idea who Infinity Ward is." If that studio does not develop any more games in the series, Pachter says Activision, "probably won't sell 20 million copies, but it will sell at least half that" of any future Call of Duty titles.

And could we get the first glimpse of the game at E3 this June? VG247.com quotes Bungie's Brian Jarrard as saying, "You know, we might be, but it's very important we don't lose sight of [Halo] Reach." Sounds like it's possible but don't hold your breath.

In the midst of their issues with current and ex-Infinity Ward team members, publisher Activision Blizzard made a major move today with their announcement that they will be the publisher for Halo creators Bungie for the next 10 years. The agreement will have the publisher release Bungie's next original game franchise which will be in the action genre but Bungie will retain full ownership of those games.

The big question: will those games be released for the PC? Bungie has been an Xbox/Xbox 360 exclusive developer for all of its Halo games under Microsoft, including this fall's Halo: Reach. Activision stated their agreement with Bungie for their new game franchise covers multiple platforms so there's a big chance that we could see Bungie's next game come to your hard drive.

The downloadable games industry has been booming of late and many game developers who have worked in major publishers and development houses have been moving into that space. The latest such small company to announce its presence is Moonshot Games, formed in part by three former members of Bungie Studios.

The game's well-designed web site has already launched but so far the company is keeping mum on what specific games they are working on. They are saying that Moonshot is "dedicated to exploring the uncharted spaces of high-quality downloadable games, bringing to those worlds our years of experience with AAA productions." We hope their games are as imaginative as their web site design.

Bungie and Microsoft's Halo series has evolved into much more than just a game franchise. The series, which has seen the first two FPS titles released for the PC, has expanded into comics, action figures and a number of successful novels. The Halo novels are about to get even more attention thanks to word of a new prequel trilogy.

The three novels from Tor Books will be written by Greg Bear, a multiple Hugo and Nebula award winning hard science fiction author of works like Blood Music, The Forge of God and others. The Bear-written Halo novel trilogy will focus on the Forerunners, the creators of the Halo artifacts. The first novel will be released in 2010.

[Via Halo.Bungie.Org]

Patch removes CD check from the original Halo: Combat Evolved for PC. Patches for the Halo Custom Edition and Dedicated Server are also available.

Download Halo v1.0.8.616 Patch (3 Mb)
Download Halo Dedicated Server v1.0.8.616 Patch (2 Mb)

Download Halo Custom Edition v1.0.8.616 Patch (3 Mb)
Download Halo Custom Edition Dedicated Server v1.0.8.616 Patch (2 Mb)