Bungie and Activision Modern Warfare 3, WaAhaA?

"Bungie making original IPs: Hard to think that Bungie haven't made an original game since Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, but then for many young people or console players that's all they've ever known. They've had nearly ten years to think up some killer game ideas, and you can bet they won't have chosen their first one lightly. Not to mention that originality in the gaming world, especially including Activision or Bungie, should be wholeheartedly embraced.

Great distribution and marketing: Say what you like about Activision, they are the number one publisher in the world, and in these troubled economic times they've managed to stay profitable. Bungie obviously realize this, and can see that Activision will get their games out there and be successfully no matter what. That's an extremely attractive proposition for Bungie, and for us it means lots of great marketing to gobble up (did anyone complain about the Modern Warfare 2 marketing? Did anyone complain about EA's Dante's Inferno marketing? Exactly) as well as, of course, getting the game no matter what the platform. Say what you like about Activision being evil, but they haven't yet stuck invasive DRM systems on their PC games nor usually made any preference for one system over the other (barring MW2's Stimulus map pack).

No longer shackled to one IP: As much as they obviously loved Halo, it must be incredibly draining to work on the same license for 9 years. Infinity Ward may have just been about Call of Duty, but Modern Warfare was vastly different to their previous games and MW2 was almost a Tom Clancy novel. I can imagine the discussion at Bungie regarding Halo Wars: "Oh, cool, a RTS in the Halo universe, that'll be something different for us to do." "Uh, yeah, Ensemble are making it, not us." "What?! But we're RTS specialists! We made Myth and were going to make Halo an RTS at first!" "I know, it's a shame." "So I'll just carry on making this exact same FPS again shall I?" "Please."

The change will be refreshing. It's quite possible this new game might not even be a FPS. In fact, the rumor is that it'll be an MMO - I mean, 10 years as opposed to 3-4 games? What one type of game could be supported for as long as a decade, and what publisher is the best MMO marketer in the world? Brace yourselves.
New game will be on other platforms: The big important reason to be excited for this deal is that we'll once again get to see Bungie games on other platforms, and as I said above, Activision don't play favorites - the new IP will be on all platforms. 360, PS3, PC, handhelds... yes, possibly even the Wii (although whether Bungie will handle all the versions or whether there's a port in progress is another matter). On the other hand, if it's an MMO, it may not be...

Activision not in control of the IP or Bungie: Back to Activision being evil again. Bungie have been very careful in the wording of their agreement with the mega-publisher. "Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property." These guys know who they're dealing with, and I'm prepared to bet dollars to halos that following the Infinity Ward fiasco Bungie have been extra careful with the terms of the agreement. Activision aren't coming anywhere near these guys.

Fully independent: Mentioned this earlier, I just want to underline something in it - Bungie is still free to do whatever the hell it likes, this deal is only for one IP. If they want to do another game they can go to another publisher, even make it 360-only, Microsoft-published, perhaps even with some sort of ring-motif...

Could end the console war: The Pro biggy. Let's call this deal for what it is - devastation for 360 fanboys. Halo is a huge part of the appeal of Microsoft's console and Bungie is a huge part of Halo's success. Unlike Call of Duty which at least has Treyarch (and isn't an original creation, it's based on real-life events), Halo is all about Bungie, especially since Ensemble were rewarded with their hard work by being shut down. Who's going to take it? Gearbox? They're hard at work on Borderworlds and Aliens: Colonial Marines, and aren't a Microsoft company. It's presumably going to be 343 Industries, but they're hardly a proven commodity.

Without a Halo 4 to back their exclusives up, which are thinning out now as it is, Microsoft are going to have their work cut out going into the next generation of consoles. If they can't get the exclusives back, well then, they might have to back out of the console race altogether, leaving us once again with Sony and Nintendo. Eek. Wait, that means we can actually afford all major consoles! Yay!
CONS

New game on other platforms: This one's for the 360 fanboys. A Bungie game on a platform other than the 360, let alone the PS3? The horror! Admittedly this does lead to a valid point, which is that making a game for all platforms is a lot tougher than being exclusive to one. PS3 development is radically different to 360 development, which is why multiplatform games are rarely as graphically impressive as exclusives like Halo Reach or Killzone 2. Crysis 2 and Rage may change that perception, but are the Bungie boys up to the multiplatform graphics challenge?

Only 1 IP in 10 years?: Yes, this is the oddity. While it's a good thing that Bungie are free to pursue other IPs with other publishers, they have to make this one IP for ten years for Activision. Huh? Halo's only 9 years old, Call of Duty is 7, and Guitar Hero is only 5. In less than 10 years, not one of those licenses have remained in the hands of one developer, and are no longer being made by the original developer. In short: that's a fucking long time! If it's not an MMO that's a ridiculous length of time to be worried about one IP, and if it is an MMO there'll be a lot of disappointed Halo fans out there...

Activision is really sneaky: See Infinity Ward, Red Octane, Harmonix, Neversoft... the list goes on. Bungie really have to watch their backs with Activision around, lest they sneak some clause into their agreements that prohibits worshipping anyone other than Bobby Kotick and the Almighty Dollar as their gods. Speaking of dollars, one thing Activision are never ashamed to do is ridiculously hike up the price of their popular products for no reason, so expect to pay an extortionate amount for Bungie's next.

No more Bungie Halo games ever: Forget what I suggested above in Pros, there aren't ever going to be any more Bungie-developed Halo games. Bungie has said that Halo: Reach will be their last. In the wake of Infinity Ward basically falling apart and so Modern Warfare 3, if it happens at all, will likely not be as good as previous games, having no Halo either is terrible news. Oh well, back to Left 4 Dead again...

Why didn't they sign up with a smaller publisher?: More of a personal comment then a Con, but this is Bungie we're talking about, they don't need the support of the Biggest Publisher In The World. They could've gone with Deep Silver or Atari and they would've done just as well, with a great deal less Evil.

360/PS3 Competition A Good Thing: The downside of the idea of Microsoft dropping out of the console race is that competition is a very good thing. It makes these publishers work their absolute hardest to keep ahead of their opponent and produce the best games they can. It took Sony several years to finally make the PS3 an attractive prospect, and the reason for this is that they didn't even see Microsoft or Nintendo as a threat - they had the Playstation, they had the most powerful console, that's all they needed to win. Right, and if I painted yellow stripes on my body and stuck a pencil up my ass I'd be a beautiful bumblebee.

Microsoft May Buy New Studios: The Con biggy, in my opinion. With the absence of Bungie, Microsoft have got a major developer-shaped hole in their line-up. They can either cope with what they have and potentially get knocked out of the console market... or they can start looking for replacements. Microsoft have deep pockets and you can bet they're eying up studios to consume at this very moment.
There you have it. A lot of good reasons, and a lot of terrifying prospects. I suspect we'll be feeling the repercussions of the Bungie/Activision deal for a long time to come..."

Chris Capel

Well, What do you guys think of this? Bungie quit Microsoft so Buh-Bye Halo!! So it's estimated realease date is early 2012 around the PS4... 2012 is gonna be a CRAZY year...