Bungie, Activision Sign Publishing Deal

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Bungie, the video game developer behind the popular Halo series of games (among others), just announced a 10 year publishing deal that will see them leave their familiar publishing relationship with Microsoft. Acitivison, was already one of the largest game publishers in the world and this is definitely a huge coup for them. Microsoft will retain all rights for the Halo games.

Activision is receiving exclusive worldwide rights to publish all upcoming Bungie games based on an upcoming unannounced Bungie franchise. The new franchise is being described as a “action game universe”. For the first time since they were acquired by Microsoft oh, so long ago, Bungie’s games won’t be exclusive to the PC or Xbox. The deal with Activision specifically mentions “multiple platforms.”

Bungie will retain all rights for the IP for the new game – the deal with Activision only applies to the franchise. This is interesting, not only does Microsoft control their moneymaker Halo IP, but Activision’s recent conflict with Infinity Ward over the Call of Duty IP has got the creators separated from their own creations.

Bungie very publicly bought themselves out from Microsoft’s umbrella in 2007, although Microsoft retained a small stake in the company. It was assumed by many that even though Bungie was independent, Microsoft held some sort of ‘first-right’ to publish their games. The two continued to work together on a few more Halo games – but now it looks like they’re going their separate ways.