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Bungie: The Timing Isn’t Ideal, But The News Is Great
Earlier this morning, Activision and Bungie announced that the two companies signed a deal that gives the publisher exclusive worldwide distribution rights for Bungie’s new IP for the next decade. In turn, Bungie retains ownership of its IP while enjoying the benefits that a wealthy benefactor brings. We spoke with Bungie about the deal to learn how it affects the future of the upcoming Halo: Reach, whether the partnership prevents Bungie from ever again working within the Halo universe, and the surprising ways that having such a plan frees Bungie as storytellers.
Activision has been in the headlines a lot lately, though not for reasons that strengthen its brand image. The company has taken its share of lumps over how it handled the Infinity Ward exodus. The company fired Jason West and Vince Zampella, two of the studio’s co-founders, in March over charges of insubordination and breach of contract. The pair filed a suit against the company, claiming that the move was an attempt by Activision to avoid paying royalties from the hugely successful Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the weeks that followed, a number of Infinity Ward employees left the company, some of whom joined West and Zampella’s new company, Respawn Entertainment.
Brian Jarrard, community director at Bungie, said the Bungie/Activision deal has been in the works for the past nine months — well before the Infinity Ward drama came to a head — though the timing has been unfortunate. Jarrard told us those events didn’t make Bungie second-guess its partnership. “Honestly, the reality is it doesn’t change anything for us,” Jarrard said. “We have a pretty amazing deal with all the important points for us that really set us up for success and hopefully kick some ass in the next decade. Personally, my only thought of it is that it’s really unfortunate that there’s all of this noise happening when we’re making this announcement, because we’re very excited about it. It’s great for Bungie and it should be great for our fans. It’s [hard] having to wade through this noise right now, and the timing isn’t ideal. We also didn’t want to sit on this news and risk having it leak or risk having it impact the Reach beta. So it is what it is.”
“We certainly signed this partnership with Activision based on mutual strengths,” said Bungie design director Joseph Staten. “Bungie is a great developer and Activision is a really great publisher. But the deal wouldn’t have gone through if we didn’t have something to present to them that they thought was compelling.
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