BUNGIE AND ACTIVISION ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE, WORLDWIDE PARTNERSHIP10-Year Alliance Expands Global Reach for Leading Game Developer Across Multiple PlatformsKirkland, WA and Santa Monica, CA — April 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — 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.The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices.Activision will broaden its portfolio with a new franchise from one of the industry’s most creative, successful and proven studios, whose games have sold more than 25 million units worldwide. To date, Bungie’s Halo games have generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenues, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK. Activision expects this agreement to be accretive to its operating margins as of the release of the first game.“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.”“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”Members of the media can visit Activision’s Broadcast Media Center to download broadcast quality video, web-ready video and high-resolution images. Members of the media using Pathfire can take advantage of a Pathfire enabled video download. Sound bites from Thomas Tippl and Harold Ryan along with b-roll footage regarding today’s announcement are available for download. Broadcast Media Center: http://www.usngondemand.com/index.php.About BungieBungie, now 180 employees strong, was founded in 1991 with two simple goals: develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, compelling stories and deep gameplay, and sell enough copies to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon Trilogy” and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action franchise that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 25 million units worldwide, spawning best-selling novels and award winning soundtracks. Players have logged nearly 2 billion hours of multiplayer action over Xbox LIVE, created millions of pieces of user created content, and established a ravenous fan community. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.About Activision PublishingHeadquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Activision Publishing generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” “future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Activision Publishing’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision Publishing’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms, declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision Publishing’s products, competition from the used game market, adoption rate and availability of new hardware (including peripherals) and related software, industry competition and competition from other forms of entertainment, rapid changes in technology, industry standards and consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as music, first-person action and massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Activision Publishing, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers which can create high quality “hit” titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, and the other factors identified in the risk factors section of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
Also Bungie told Eurogamer that the Infinity Ward fiasco hadn't made them nervous about partnering with Activision. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-iw-plight-didnt-make-us-nervous
You mean Bungies executives told that to eurogamer while receiving piles of cash. The actual developers are busy saying 'oh shit...'
Dealing with the devil can be a rewarding experince - if your into derivative console experinces that rely on out of date deesign.
Unless the devil never pays you.
If you read it, it isn't an exclusivity agreement for everything, just one specific product line that hasn't come out yet for a 10 year period...Bungie can still work on other games for other companies. And Activision gets only exclusive publishing rights ro whatever this IP ends up being...Bungie retains ownership over the IP.
This is the kind of publishing deal you'd wished you'd entered into with James Cameron before he dropped Avatar on the world. If the product in question sells a metric 'fucking shitload' then the Publisher, in this case Activision, sees a great return on their investment while having to do very little besides sell the product, which isn't hard when you're dealing with top tier and well known talent who's name is as well known as their products.Bungie, Valve and Blizzard are about the only development companies in the world who could've entered into this kind of agreement because it so heavily favours the developer - basically, Activision see a small percentage of the profits in exchange for handling everything except making the game. The fact that Activision, who focus on the bottom line for the next quarter above anything else, entered into this agreement means one of two things: 1. Bungie have another world wide smash hit series on their hands thats going to make the success of the Halo series look like a casual day at the office and Activision got in on the ground level, or 2. Activision are banking on Halo's success as proof that Bungie can and will deliver another world wide smash hit series thats going to make the success of the Halo series look like a casual day at the office. The third possibility is that Activision's legal team can run circles around Bungie's, and have a rock solid, iron clad loop-hole built into the contract that Bungie can't see or don't believe will ever eventuate that allows Activision either rights to the IP, it's profits or to Bungie itself.Activision are the biggest publisher on the planet, and they're who you want selling your game for you if you want it to be a world wide smash hit. However, as Activision have now replaced EA as the worst company in the Video Game business and are enjoying a PR smear the likes of which haven't been seen since Spore landed and pissed on its entire customer base, Bungie's next game can't just be good, or even simply great or amazing; it needs to be perfect, otherwise the 'Activision' logo on the box is going to scare off any educated gamers.A great day for Activision, a bad day for everyone else including Bungie.
Well I know there are IW employees oozing out of Activision at an unbelievable rate complete with a lawsuit, but what is it they are doing against gamers that is worst than Ubisoft? Yes I know about the dedicated servers or lack of, but in general, what's going on with their games? I honestly don't know as I might be an exception to the rule since I have't purchased or played one of their games since I think... SWAT 4 which is theirs now but I don't think it was at the time I was playing.
Call of Duty 7.
Its probably going to be really fun too. And I have to buy it. Damn Activision bastards.
I think this sucks really. Bungie has always made games of a pretty decent Quality. I think the first Bungie game I played was "Myth: The Fallen Lords" which was a Awesome war game. As for Activision, they've made some awesome games, but, they've also made some crap games I wouldn't touch with a ten foot stick. Activision is also the current "bad boy" of the industry as they are taking the place of being hated that EA had just a short year or two ago.
Bad form Bungie....bad form.
If Activision wants to salvage their image at this point, they really need to lose Bobby Kotick. The man flat out stated in an interview that the only thing his company cares about is money, that his company will only focus on game franchises that can be churned out every year, and he'd gouge his customers even more if he could. While this is the same policy they have at EA, they at least know enough about PR there to avoid admitting it publicly.
It takes some skill to become more hated than EA or Ubisoft, but Activision have proven to be up to the challenge. A shame they're dragging down Blizzard's name by association, much like Bioware after EA bought them.
Intersting take on the three of them. I agree with many of them except EA. I thought EA just released something that pretty much says they're not done toying with DRM yet, Comand and Conquer maybe...?.
As for Activision, the fans of Starcraft don't seem as concerned about getting their game in three pieces as I thought they would be. I know sales isn't necessarily acceptance (well it is in my book but I seem to be the minority there). The lack of mods, I am assuming you are referring to MW2. See my experience with Activision and Blizzard has pretty much been nil since Diabloe II and I am not 100% for activision which might explain why I wasn't aware of some of these issues. I do remember them pushing the price envelope a bit, but ilke you said, EA pretty much does the same thing with DLC but tries to say its not the same thing.
Thanks for your summaries. At least I know I am not the only one who is pretty unhappy with the industry in general, and when you think about it, the big players cover a considerable portion of the market.
Blizzard has earned much respect and trust - despite being allied with ActEVILsion.
When Blizzard says "we are going to charge you three times" that means "we have three times more awesome for you to buy!" for many people. Considering I have loved every Blizzard game I've ever played (and they never released Ghost because it would be crap unlike many many games) Im giving them the benifit of the doubt.
Only time will tell if they deliver or not. For me, the big publishers tend to disappoint more often than not unfortunately so I am more skeptical than you are. I am also not interested in Starcraft II as it were, but D3 I am interested in.
Well Blizzard might not have done much in a few years outside of WoW, but if they think a flying mount in WoW is worth 25 bucks a pop, I can only imagine what they think a full game is worth, evidently 150+ dollars since they are splitting Starcraft into 3 bits.
Well, I've heard that the Terran campaign in SC2 is as long as all three campaigns from SC1 put together, so I really can't blame them for splitting it up.
So if a game has 10x more content then a game that is 10 years old, probably more than that, and the game cost fifty dollars ten years ago you wouldn't mind paying 500 dollars for the later sequal. What about a 1,000 or 10,000? It's been ten years... you'd hope that games would have more content by now, doesn't mean we should empty our bank accounts to get it.
Except that people who don't care about the campaigns get the shaft here. They've said there will be new units and such with each expansion, so the multiplayer crowd will be forced to choose between shelling out for a very expensive expansion ($50 is high even for Blizzard pricing) or leaving the game once a new expansion hits (as few people will still be playing the older version). Now, if Blizzard offers a DLC option or discount so people with the first part can get the new features for less I'll take everything back. But seeing as they're pawns of Activision now, I doubt the executives will let them do anything but charge full price.
You are the man!! +100
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
