Bungie is such a ironic company. They fought for their freedom from Xbox to make something other than Halo, to then nearly repeat the process with Activision. Now they have sold out to Sony.
Eh, it's a little different than that, though.
Bungie had become just the "Halo Studio" at Microsoft, producing games in the series that they saw as finite (albeit in a world that might expand, as in how
Halo Reach was originally just Reach.) Meanwhile, MS saw Halo as infinitely marketable, and they were exploring options that Bungie did not want approve us. (
Halo Wars was the beginning of bad blood, and likely there were plenty more conversations from there as MS sought to expand the franchise;
Halo DS and
Halo Gizmondo are two other small public instances of cracks appearing in what would become a rift.) Bungie felt this was "whoring out" their baby.
So, they left Microsoft, and went "independent". Their independence still requires backing to support, however, and they were not able to take the Halo franchise with them (this was back still in the boxed-copy days of games and before "independence" was possible for most studios; it's a little surprising that Bungie couldn't stay single forever in today's market, but maybe they have a new project beyond the Destiny cash-cow that needs a new level of backing again?), so they needed a partner. Enter Activision, who had some experience in being (reluctantly) hands-off with the Blizzard acquisition. And that seemed to go according to plan for a time. (The Activision split apparently seems to be
purely financial on Acti's part, since originally there was going to be a slew of Destiny sequels and instead it became a GaaS... I wonder if Bungie also wasn't liking being on Kotick's roster as brands started to be winnowed there in favor of everything going to CoD, but that's conjecture on my part, albeit
some of the stories are out there about the split.) Then, they went indie, and that was fine, but for some reason (including 3 and a half little reasons...), they've now sold the business to Sony.
Still "independent", as with Activision, still calling all their own shots and making games for whatever platforms Bungie planned its projects for, but now the money goes through the Sony towers. We'll see what being a PlayStation Studio might mean for games Bungie makes and what platforms (or more realistically, what streaming services) it releases on, but so far, it's "independent" business as usual...
en.m.wikipedia.org
HeisenbergFX4
does enjoy a drink with MS execs from time to time I believe.
www.pcgamesn.com
