Bungie Universe
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  • Subject: Hints Hiding in Plain Sight
Subject: Hints Hiding in Plain Sight

Are You On The Move?

http://www.youtube.com/user/OSCARMIKEmachinima

In the latest Bungie Mail Sack, DeeJ answered a question regarding information about the symbols found in the Bungie Day article by saying the following:

Posted by: DeeJ
I can tell you nothing about them that you don't already know, tenacious investigator: They exist. You will learn more about their role in our new universe Soon [TM].


Every time soon is used in relation to their new game franchise Bungie not only capitalizes it, but also trademarks it. Why is this word so important? Could it be a catchphrase? The real name of the new franchise? Or what if the universe the game takes place in is, literally, called "Soon"?

  • 07.16.2012 5:24 PM PDT

I'm not that active, but never dead.

Soon(TM) has been around for a long time with Bungie. Here's a quote from the Bungie soapbox, circa October 1996, that may explain things a little better. Note that this is when Bungie was still a really small developer, and is a pretty cool insite into what the computer game industry was like back in 1996.

Posted by: Matt Soell
Release The Kraken

Since this is appearing on Bungie's Web site, it makes sense that I would talk about my job here at Bungie, or at least some aspect of it. My job involves reading a great deal of e-mail, reading lots of posts on Usenet newsgroups, and talking on the phone. Having done this for many moons, I suppose there are a couple of things which stick in my craw. Let's rant, shall we?

Release Dates

Those of you who read game-related newsgroups on any sort of regular basis are probably familiar with posts titled:

[Eagerly-Anticipated Game X], WHEN?!

And because Game X is so eagerly anticipated, there are a number of follow-up posts from people sharing the latest rumors. More often than not, rumors prove to be just that: elaborate fantasies with no basis in reality.

Those of you who have been reading alt.games.marathon with any regularity over the last couple years are probably already familiar with Bungie's position regarding release dates. For those of you who arrived late, here's a quick primer:

EARLY 1994 - Bungie announces Marathon. People (particularly those with net access) begin to salivate uncontrollably. Bungie's internal timeline calls for Marathon to be finished in August. Bungie rather naively relays this tidbit of info to a stoked online community.

AUGUST 1, 1994, 12:00:01 AM - August arrives. Unfortunately, due to a number of unforseen difficulties, Marathon is still not done. Some overly zealous people get angry, but most continue to wait patiently.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1994, 12:00:01 AM - August is gone. Unfortunately, due to a number of unforseen difficulties, Marathon is still not done. Bungie is now officially late. The flames begin to trickle in like water seeping through a quickly-growing crack in a dam.

SEPTEMBER THROUGH DECEMBER - Unfortunately, due to a number of unforseen difficulties, Marathon is still not done. The dam bursts. Bungie is getting all sorts of angry e-mails, phone calls, faxes and voice mails, all demanding to know why this Marathon game wasn't released back in August, as promised. Bungie mutters something about boxes not being done and works frantically to complete the game.

DECEMBER 23, 1994 - Marathon is finished and released to a public that had been clamoring for it for the better part of a year. The game is done, but Bungie has managed to inadvertently anger a healthy chunk of its customer base by not getting the product out on time, even though Bungie had a number of perfectly good reasons for taking as long as it did.

EARLY 1995 - Bungie commences work on Marathon 2: Durandal. It is determined long before the game is even announced to the public that NO RELEASE DATES WILL BE GIVEN TO ANYONE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This is seen as the best possible option for everyone concerned: there's no way to accurately predict a release date until a game is done, so why bother? Why not just be honest with the customer and say "Well, we don't know when the game is going to be done and we're not willing to guess because we tried that once and it didn't work. You'll just have to be patient."

So that, in a nutshell, is how Bungie came to institute a No-Release-Dates policy. Everyone still with me? Good.

Here's where it gets tricky.

There are a lot of software mail-order houses and retail stores out there. Like most mail-order and retail outfits, they like money; in fact, they won't survive if no one gives them money. There are a whole lotta fish in this particular pond, and they all want your money. (There's nothing inherently wrong with this, by the way, unless you think capitalism is evil.)

Now those of you who read our last Soapbox know that these places are REQUIRED BY LAW to give release dates for the products they pre-sell. Even if the bad evil people at Bungie Software choose not to provide a release date, these poor souls are legally obliged to tell the customer when the software will ship. This law has resulted in the creation of an industry-standard phrase, "Two Weeks" (as in "Sorry, that title is currently out of stock, but we're expecting a shipment in two weeks...." Ring any bells?) If the title hasn't actually been released 14 days later, the mail-order places and stores can just say "Oh, the publisher pushed back the release date. We're expecting a shipment in two weeks." This process is repeated until the software actually ships.

These companies are smart. They know that if you go to the trouble of placing a pre-order, you probably won't go to the trouble of cancelling it unless you find someone else selling the same product for a lower price. The most important thing is making that initial pre-sale. Having a release date, valid or not, can be an important asset; it somehow makes the sale more concrete. "It's currently out of stock, but we'll get a shipment in two weeks." At least they know when the software is coming, thinks the trusting consumer. They do this for a living, so that date is probably pretty firm. And the guy on the phone was so quick to tell me that it would only be two weeks. They certainly sound like they know what they're doing.

Back to concrete examples. In August 1995, Bungie was still working on Marathon 2. We'd released a playable preview at MacWorld, and catalogs began to run ads for it. There was a great deal of interest, and every day we fielded dozens of calls from people who wanted to know when the game would be released. But we weren't giving a release date, for reasons described above.

But the mail-order houses and retailers had release dates. Sometimes very interesting ones.

So one day I got a call from a customer who had ordered Marathon 2 from a mail-order company (which shall not be named here, because I'm a nice guy who doesn't want to deal with a slander lawsuit) and wanted to know when it would ship. I told him we didn't have a release date. He thanked me and said he was on a limited budget, so he was going to call the mail-order company and cancel his order because he couldn't afford to max out his credit card for a few months. I told him to call back in a couple months, when we might have a better idea of when the game would be done. He said goodbye and hung up.

Ten minutes later he called back, infuriated. He was "appalled at our customer service." He wanted to speak to my supervisor. "How can you lie to your customers like that?" he asked.

"I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean," I said.

"I just called the mail-order company to cancel my order. The guy who answered the phone asked me why I was cancelling, and I told him I didn't want to order any games right now if I couldn't find out exactly when they would ship. He said that Marathon 2 is already out. He said that they got a shipment last week but they sold out of them right away, but they're supposed to get another shipment next Monday. I told him that Bungie claims the game isn't out yet, and he said that Bungie was lying to me because they had Marathon 2 in stock just last week."

Keep in mind this was in August of '95, three months before Marathon 2 was released.

Eventually I was able to calm the guy down and assure him that I wasn't lying about Marathon 2's status. I pointed out that, if the game actually was available, I would be shooting myself in the foot by telling him otherwise: we want to sell as many copies of our games as possible. He accepted the logic in this. He vowed to call the mail-order company and chew them out instead.

Over the next few months, I heard the same story from different people. "We're getting a shipment tomorrow." "We just sold our last copy, but we'll be getting more in about a few days." "If you place your pre-order now, you'll get it right after we get the shipment this Friday." And of course, "The publisher pushed back their release date another two weeks."

All before we'd said a word to anyone about a release date.

Most people who buy software on a regular basis hear this every time they place an order. Most of them eventually come to realize that release dates, such as they are, are subject to change at a moment's notice. Other people don't notice this...or they believe the "Publisher missed the release date" routine.

Obviously this is just my experience. Obviously there have been plenty of occasions when a company has announced a product's release date and failed to meet it. Obviously there are plenty of reasons that I should stop whining about what is essentially a trivial issue.

So what do I want you to take away from this segment of the rant? Two things:

1. If you buy software through mail-order, you might find that a certain percentage of the software you order arrives later than you expected. This is an unfortunate fact of life. Get used to it. Why? Because...

2. Developing software is an art, no different than writing novels or directing movies. Sometimes writers miss their deadlines. Sometimes movies go over budget or over schedule. This does not necessarily mean that the artists working on the novel/movie/computer game are lazy sods or incompetent at their job; it's just taking a little longer than they expected. Developing software is not like churning out widgets on an assembly line. There's a great deal of creativity involved, and a good number of hurdles to be overcome. Getting upset at the programmers for taking the time to do their job well is not an answer.

  • 07.16.2012 7:26 PM PDT