Weekly Chatcast #3

In this week’s impromptu Chatcast we discuss Bungie and Microsoft’s now official split, why it happened, and the future of the Halo franchise.  Enjoy!

Jeff: I’m still confused by this Bungie/MS breakup
Jeff: I mean, I get that Bungie is probably sick of Halo
Jeff: and want to work on something else…
Jeff: but I’m sure Microsoft would let them do that before giving up the company itself
Geoff: yeah…
Geoff: i
Geoff: ‘m thinking that maybe
Geoff: MS figured anyone can make a halo game
Jeff: sure..
Jeff: but that doesn’t mean they have to give up Bungie
Geoff: yeah but bungie’s probably bored with making gams
Jeff: hell, even the Bungie name is fairly valuable
Geoff: halo games
Geoff: so…
Jeff: so what?
Jeff: have them work on another new blockbuster
Jeff: of whatever they want
Geoff: i bet MS figured 1) bungie won’t do a great job if they’re forced to make games they don’t want; 2) anyone can make halo 4; and 3) as long as we have ROFR on all their titles, we can just pick the good games out of the lot instead of having to invest in potentially lousy ones
Geoff: i see this as a pretty good move for MS
Jeff: except I don’t think your #1 is right
Geoff: you don’t think resentment at microsoft for preventing them from making anything except halo 4 would affect their quality?
Jeff: Let’s say Bungie went to MS and said “Look, we’re making Halo 3, but then we’re done with Halo.”
Jeff: And MS said “Well, too bad”
Jeff: Then Bungie came back and said “Well, fine… we’ll just pack up the company and leave then.”
Jeff: I mean, yeah, they can’t be FORCED to make Halo
Jeff: but Bungie is still a valuable developer
Geoff: yes…
Jeff: you’d think Microsoft would’ve stopped short of selling the company
Geoff: but MS is still getting all their games =)
Jeff: and just let them work on whatever they wanted
Geoff: they have right of first refusal on everything they produce
Jeff: that was only speculation
Geoff: are you sure?
Jeff: Well
Jeff: it’s not entirely clear
Jeff: Kotaku has an interview up now
Geoff: not according to Joystiq
Jeff: it’s certainly not “official”
Jeff: hmm
Geoff: From Microsoft’s Press Release:
Geoff: “Microsoft
an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its
g publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and
he Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property, as well as
properties developed by Bungie.”
Geoff: Even if you assume they don’t have an official ROFR, they seem to have a de facto one
Jeff: I think they made up that last part from rumors earlier in the week
Geoff: Plus, Microsoft is taking a minority stake in the company
Jeff: right
Jeff: I saw that
Jeff: even so…
Geoff: Also -
Geoff: Bungie in this interview http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/bungie-owns-bungie-the-qa-307656.php dances around the question, indicating that it’s likely true
Jeff: yeah, I saw that
Jeff: that’s what I was indicating
Geoff: “Brian Jarrard: For the foreseeable future we’re focused on Microsoft platforms and the Xbox and Xbox 360 have obviously been very good to us

Geoff: heh
Geoff: i think this all sort of proves the point though
Geoff: at least, in aggregate
Geoff: MS may not “control” what Bungie works on day to day, but they certainly have assurances that Bungie will continue to develop 360 titles and that they’ll be able to off-load some of the risk in their development to this newly independent studio
Jeff: I suppose..
Jeff: except that Bungie could probably port stuff now
Jeff: which doesn’t help them
Jeff: and…
Jeff: Microsoft doesn’t control the Bungie name any more
Geoff: No, but they’re very non-commital about it
Geoff: And I have to assume MS’s stake in the firm counts for something
Geoff: It seems like this split mainly stems from Bungie’s desire to manage itself as a company
Jeff: yeah
Jeff: I think it’s basically about money
Geoff: And it’s easier for MS to accede to that request than risk dysfunctionality
Geoff: That may be an issue too
Jeff: I think Bungie probably thinks they could make more money for themselves independently.
Geoff: That’s something that makes sense - although obviously we couldn’t say for sure
Jeff: Still… even with first right of refusal, at what point does that come into play?
Jeff: Concepting?
Geoff: I would assume publication
Geoff: When they’re ready to seek a publisher, they have to give MS first option
Jeff: Someone has to fund the game, unless Bungie now has the assets to do that themselves.
Geoff: After all, publishers don’t invest in basic development
Jeff: They certainly do…
Geoff: Oops
Geoff: I said that wrong
Geoff: I meant that publishers don’t invest in idea development
Geoff: So I would think that Bungie would pitch the idea, with some proof of concept
Geoff: then MS would either pass or take it
Jeff: So if Bungie wants to work on something weird and MS passes, maybe we will see a Bungie title on another platform soon. =)
Geoff: heh
Geoff: quite possibly
Geoff: but MS has no one else to blame but itself
Geoff: if Bungie were still part of MS… the idea would just have been killed
Geoff: but in either case, it’s up to MS to evaluate the concepts accurately
Jeff: Which sort of brings us back to my original point…
Jeff: that this really doesn’t change much of anything, and therefore it’s weird that MS would let the company go rather than just let them develop whatever game their interested in making next.
Geoff: Heh
Geoff: I see what you’re saying
Geoff: but maybe the symbolic value of being independent was important to Bungie
Geoff: in conjunction with the money, of course
Jeff: Right…
Jeff: The only other thing I can think of is that they want to release PC games again…
Jeff: which could still mean using Microsoft as a publisher
Geoff: Why doesn’t the money + freedom theory work for you?
Jeff: It does
Jeff: I’m just adding another. =)
Jeff: They said something about going back to their “roots”
Jeff: also..
Jeff: Money + Freedom still doesn’t really explain why MS let them go. =)
Geoff: Well, you said it basically
Geoff: They aren’t really giving up much, and not doing it was too costly
Jeff: Well, assuming Bungie was threatening to pack up and leave
Geoff: Even if they just said, “We want to be independent”… it’s the same basic effect
Geoff: the implication is that they would be less pleased if they stayed
Jeff: They’d create a poison pill? =)
Jeff: “Halo 4: Rainbows and Butterflies”
Geoff: No - but people would leave the company
Geoff: and/or do a worse job than if they were trying their best
Jeff: Guess that makes sense…
Jeff: You’d just think, if you owned a company that created a franchise that could make $300M in a week, you’d probably be pretty hesitant to give it up. The price to make it worth selling would be too high.
Geoff: Heh
Geoff: What if Halo 4 isn’t as good?
Geoff: This way you lock in a premium price on the expectation that #4 breaks even more records
Jeff: heh, assuming they make 4
Jeff: which, it doesn’t sound like they will
Jeff: I think they’ll probably take more of a “consulting” position on the new games
Geoff: I meant, they’d have to make 4 if they stayed - so they’re sort of hedging their bets, maybe
Jeff: Yeah…
Jeff: I guess it sort of makes sense…
Jeff: Do you think MS will try snapping up some other company to make Halo 4 now?
Geoff: I’m not sure
Geoff: Maybe they give it to Epic?
Jeff: Saw some speculation on that…
Jeff: Sort of seems unlikely
Jeff: I wonder if Epic would even want it
Jeff: I mean, it seems like any developer would want it.
Jeff: But Epic may not want to have to pour the resources into that they’d want…
Jeff: Plus, the money from it probably wouldn’t be as good
Jeff: as franchises that they’ve built themselves
Geoff: Honestly, once you have the basic design I don’t think the game is that difficult to create per se
Geoff: You just need to improve it
Jeff: I think it’d make more sense to get sort of another rising indie company
Jeff: Not sure who that is…
Jeff: Bungie was a little bigger than that when they were bought by MS… but weren’t very well known in the console crowd.

And that’s all we have for now. See you next time!