In a rather shocking "Hmm, didn't see that one coming" surprise, Bungie and Activision have just announced an exclusive ten year partnership deal.
Bungie, the developer of blockbuster game franchises including Halo, Myth and Marathon, and Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the #1 online games publisher (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that they have entered into an exclusive 10-year partnership to bring Bungie's next big action game universe to market. 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. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In practice, this will probably be very similar to the situation with Blizzard, except that Bungie is not being bought out - Activision will act only as an exclusive worldwide distribution partner. Now, before you start salivating for223c new Halo titles on the PC (or the PS3), it should be noted that the Halo franchise is owned by Microsoft and the odds of seeing new Halo title announcements from Bungie after this are exactly zero. Not that it is much of a surprise as it was known for some time already that Halo Reach would be the last Bungie Halo title.
Interestingly, it seems that this deal has been in the works for quite a while and means that future Bungie games are likely to appear also on the PC.
"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."
Can't wait for the inevitable new Bungie IP from this partnership. Maybe we'll hear something already at E3 in a few months, even if it is likely that it'll be 2011 before the first Bungie-Activision game is out.
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