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Subject: Why would M$ let bungie free?

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Should've read the thread :/

[Edited on 07.01.2011 10:34 AM PDT]

  • 07.01.2011 10:33 AM PDT
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Posted by: Alex the Awesome
No, the ownership contract was 10 years...

Halo was bought at the same time as Bungie. But Halo was permanently apart of Microsoft's trademark registration.


No, there was not contract. Back in 2007 Bungie bought themselves from Microsoft. 2000-2007 Microsoft owned them completely. Part of that deal of Bungie going independent was that they make 2 more Halo Games for Microsoft. After that, they were done and free. Its weird and sorta cool that Bungie's handing off Halo on their 20th anniversary and Halo's 10th.

  • 07.02.2011 11:06 AM PDT
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Yep....

Yeah.. again.. that dollar sign thing? That's annoying. Stop doing it and I can then take you guys seriously.

  • 07.02.2011 11:52 AM PDT

I'll have the roast duck . . . with the mango salsa.

Jason Jones aimed the slingshot at them and said "Let's make a deal..."

  • 07.02.2011 12:38 PM PDT
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http://bungie.me/sig/dot2/DEUCE+MORELLI.png

So here's what happened back then, and what likely would've happened now:

Microsoft buys Bungie in 2000 to make Halo an XBOX exclusive title, as they knew it would sell consoles. TakeTwo gets control and rights to Myth.

Halo 2 and Halo 3 get made. Probably back in 2005, as MS' games division were formulating a strategy for the next several years, Microsoft probably insisted on turning Halo into "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" for video games - movies, books, games et cetera (beyond the books already being made), and wanted Bungie to take up that mantle as a content manager, and to allow other MS studios to create derivative games (i.e. Halo Wars).

Bungie, likely bored from being a one-trick pony, started talks to do something more than Halo, which ended up in Microsoft spinning off Bungie, but retaining the rights to Halo-related intellectual property.

(For those that don't know, spinning off a division is essentially separating from it without technically selling it. Since Bungie then were MS employees, they likely participated in the company stock program; come the agreement to spin Bungie off, MS most likely exchanged a certain amount of employees' company stock for that of the new Bungie LLC, as it was then.)

Bungie, being free to no longer be bored or a one trick pony, signs a publishing deal with Activision that allows Bungie to retain ownership of any IP it creates. Later, with Bungie Aerospace, Bungie restarts its quest for World Domination by creating a consulting division that will likely move into games publishing soon afterward.

The first half was established fact; the second half is what I call logical speculation.

  • 07.02.2011 3:34 PM PDT

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