Steve Jobs Upset Over Microsoft's Bungie Purchase

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As many of our readers are probably aware, before they joined the Microsoft camp, Bungie was actually a top Mac game developer. They made the great “Marathon” series which back in the early 1990′s, many Mac people loved to brag that “it’s actually better than Doom.” Yeah, Mac people were just as obnoxious back then, too. But, when Microsoft bought Bungie to be a top developer for their new Xbox platform, Steve Jobs wasn’t too happy about it.

Former Microsoft gaming VP Ed Fries chatted with Develop magazine about his time at Microsoft, and chatted about the 2000 acquisition of Bungie by Microsoft. Steve Jobs was very upset that a top Mac game developer has been snatched by Microsoft.

According to Fries, “As soon as we announced we bought Bungie, Steve Jobs called. He was mad at [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer and phoned him up and was angry because we’d just bought the premier Mac game developer and made them an Xbox developer.”

Fries goes on to say that Ballmer asked him to call Jobs and calm him down. Fries and Apple reached a deal where Microsoft would port some of their games to the Mac platform. Fries even spoke on-stage at WWDC about it and Microsoft even helped start a new development studio that would assist in porting PC games to the Mac.

Ten years later, Apple is a gaming superpower with the App Store, but gaming on the Mac is largely irrelevant save for a handful of games on Steam, Bungie is now independent again and making games for Activision, and Microsoft’s stock price hasn’t budged. Ah, the more things change…